Hotel Shirakabaso Shigakogen

Although I always read tons of reviews before booking, I admittedly don't always write a review on a property. However, with this hotel, I feel compelled because it is absolutely phenomenal. I've traveled a lot and stayed at a lot of great places but Hotel Shirakabaso Shigakogen will stay in my memory for a long time. First, they could write the book on customer service. You couldn't possibly find a nicer, more attentive staff. They were always so happy to help, patiently answering our many questions and made the stay that more pleasant. The accommodations are fun! The traditional Japanese style rooms were really nicely appointed and made for a unique stay. The onsen (part indoor, part outdoor) was just amazing after a day of skiing and the skiing was soooooo close. I loved renting skis from the basement of the hotel and walking across the road to the gondola! It was so, so easy. The food was sooooo good. Breakfast and dinner were part of our room fee-normally one might expect inferior quality when it's included but this was not the case. Breakfast was plentiful (mix of Japanese style food and continental options) and dinner was superior (included hot pot and multiple courses). THIS is where you want to stay-I promise you won't be disappointed!

We came here for a skiing trip, it is very close to the skiing areas. The staff, food and hospitality are amazing. Really, the staff are so warm and wholesome - reception, kitchen and the skiing rental equipment floor. The rooms are very clean and the ski equipment can be rented out. We would highly recommend and come back again. Everyone can speak English very well and I really respect that they are so welcoming to us. You can just tell how much the staff love the business and are so invested in making everyone’s stay perfect.

Small, charming hotel, ideally located to explore Shigakogen Ski resorts. The staff were exceptionally friendly and made us feel really welcome. Our teenage boys loved the traditional food (and there was plenty of it) and even wore the Yakuta for dinner and breakfast. |The onsen was lovely and a perfect way to ease the sore muscles from the slopes.|Extremely convenient to the free shuttle bus service which provided access to the whole mountain, we were able to try different ski fields each day.|We stopped off at the Snow Monkeys on our return to Nagano.|Highly recommend this small hotel.

My family of 5 thoroughly enjoyed our 4 night stay here. This property is small but very well maintained. We ordered breakfast and dinner for each day. The meals were meticulously prepared and delicious. Service staff even remembered we preferred hot water and had a flask of it for ready at eat meal. We enjoyed the hotel’s in house onsen everyday. One for men and another for women. There are also two private accessible 24hrs on a first come first served basis. The hotel also houses a ski rental service in its basement. Book your equipment, pick it up the next day before leaving for your ski runs. Then drop it off when you are back and head back to your room. All right there. Front desk staff and even housekeeping were very helpful and friendly. In addition, the front desk staff were respectful, friendly and helpful. Areas for improvement: Need more power sockets, especially next to our bed for charging our devices. The mattress was too hard for me as I am a side sleeper. I asked for extra pillows which the hotel gladly obliged. Having said that, would recommend this property unreservedly.

I stayed here with my husband and son over Christmas. The staff speak pretty good English, they have good customer service, large rooms and serve good food. Every evening they served shabu shabu hotpot or sukiyaki, you won’t go hungry. We rented our ski gear in the hotel ski shop, they catered to kids and adults (biggest size 31cm boots). You can ski to Maruike. The bus stop to Nagano station or the free ski bus is a few minutes away. We really liked the outdoor onsen! We would love to visit again.

We had a wonderful stay in a recently renovated triple bedroom at this hotel. It was perfect for us because my husband, who is from Europe, cannot sleep in a traditional Japanese room with tatami. Also, he is sensitive to high room temperatures, but at this hotel, we were able to easily control the room temperature, unlike other ski resorts we've been to. He was really happy about that! The room, along with the rest of the hotel, was impeccably clean and well maintained. Moreover, the hotel's location was convenient, as it was within walking distance of the nearest big bus station (less than 5 mins). This made it easy for us to access various ski resorts in Shiga Kogen (and the bus service was free). The hotel had all the amenities we needed for our skiing trip - indoor and outdoor natural onsen baths, complete with a sauna, free massage chairs, and washing machines/dryers. Additionally, they offered ski gear rentals at a reasonable price. To top it off, there was even a ping pong table and my son loved it! We played ping pong every night after dinner :) The meals were a true delight, featuring fresh local food and a wide variety of dishes. For breakfast, they served rice and miso soup with various small dishes, but they also had toasts with butter/jams and coffee available, which was a pleasant surprise for my husband, as he does not like the traditional Japanese breakfast with fish and rice! Overall, the service was outstanding, and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at this hotel. It may not be considered a luxurious accommodation, but it fulfilled all our requirements, allowing us to enjoy skiing at the amazing Shiga Kogen resorts. We were so content that we didn't want to leave and return to our reality!!!

I really enjoyed my stay here! Will stay here again if I return to Shiga Kogen! - Rooms, public onsen and other facilities are clean and comfortable. - Breakfast and dinner was great every day. - Service was good and everyone we met with was very friendly and accommodating. They even remembered that we requested warm and cold water during our first dinner and provided it to us without asking on the subsequent nights! - Very close to the main bus station so it was easy for us to catch the shuttle bus to any of the ski areas. - The skis we rented were well-maintained. The ski locker area was spacious and conveniently located for us to have easy access in and out of the hotel.

I almost don’t want to write a review because this is such a hidden gem. The staff(specifically the woman working the front desk) was super nice, so helpful, and spoke excellent English. She was able to tell us where everything we needed was, what it costed, and when it was open. She really improved our experiences here with her customer service and ability to communicate. I usually like to look for restaurants and adventure around, but the included dinner and breakfast here is 110% worth it. There’s not much else in the area without taking a bus. Imagine wearing your slippers down to a dinner table that’s reserved and all ready for you to eat with a varied menu every day. We couldn’t get the days we wanted, and the western style room wasn’t available, but I’m happy about that because the Japanese tatami mat room was amazing, and they allowed us to extend our stay by 1 night because we loved it so much. Spacious room, heaters worked well, big comfy comforters, and windows that open to cool down. Heated bidet and mini fridge worked well. There are TVs you can plug HDMI into if you want to watch movies. You can walk 300 feet to a mini-resort that sells lift tickets and rents gear, and take the gondola down to a central area of shiga kogen for skiing. We rented our gear(skis, jackets, gloves, everything) from the hotel and it was an easy process, and the gear was good quality. It was around 7000 yen per person per day, which seemed to be competitive/normal compared to other resorts I saw. I’d recommend bringing your own goggles and gloves as those were worn and limited. They have lockers to store all your gear that are heated and have it dried and ready for the next day. The onsen was AMAZING. It’s super hot, and they have private, indoor, and outdoor options, as well as a dry sauna made of cedar wood with fresh towels put out to sit on multiple times a day. They weren’t picky about my girlfriend’s full body flower tattoos which was considerate of them. There is a gift shop that sells a plethora of alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks and snacks for fair prices until 10pm. There is also massage chairs that are super fancy. We met multiple regulars that said we found an excellent hotel for our first stay, and this stay was a highlight of our trip. Everything was ultra convenient and so affordable. All in all we spent 1000$ total for 2 people for 3 nights with meals and ski gear rentals included. Lift tickets were 50$ a day for the multi-resort option.