Niseko Grandpapa Lodge / accommodation

Wanted to get a cheese fondue since the owner hyped it up so highly on the website. Wasn’t welcome as a single person. A Swiss owned restaurant who doesn’t entertain a Swiss customer is unique. Well - one and done

Having stayed here for more than 10 days over New Year's, here is my review: 1. Pickup from the Hirafu Welcome Centre (one of the airport bus drop-off points) was easy, a quick call to the lodge and the shuttle will come by shortly. 2. The lodge is a pension house, that means it feels more like a home than a hotel so do expect a more relaxed service level, but also more homey. 3. The staff are super friendly, as some of them are also long-stay travellers themselves. 4. It's a super walkable location from the Hirafu main intersection / centre if you are not wearing ski gears. Also close to 3 free Hirafu shuttle bus stops (Green 3, Red 4, Red 6). 5. Non Japanese toilets, if this is a big deal for you! 😄 I had such a wonderful time staying at this beautiful lodge and met wonderful people here, even as a solo traveller. Thank you GPP!

Great Japanese style lodge / pension for backpackers and solo travellers. The staff were very friendly and helpful. Very good location to get to Harifu ski lifts and surrounded by cafes, restaurants and food trucks within walking distance. Basic food available from the kitchen but recommend just getting out to the local places to eat. Shared bathroom could use a renovation and cleaning up the bar / lounge room would make it alot more inviting.

One of the last budget places to stay when skiing Niseko. Great owner Kohei who is freeskier and makes his own powder skis, informal ambience, good location in the middle of crazy expensive ski village for foreigners. Hope you have long life Kohei and Grandpapa!

Super friendly staff, shuttle for first tracks, traditional Japanese showers, kitchen for cooking your own food, cosy ski lodge vibe. A hidden gem amongst fancy new accomodation in Hirafu. Will be recommending GPP to anyone staying in the Hirafu area. Didn't want to leave!

We stayed at Grandpapa Lodge for 5 days while skiing in Niseko. The location is great -- short walk to downtown / food / drink options, and, while this is not a ski in/ski out, the owner (Kohei-san) runs a shuttle bus to the first chair, which is great! For the return leg, there are free city shuttles (or you can walk, but the walk is a bit long). The rooms (and the rest of the place!) are very neat and clean, breakfast eggs in the basket are delicious. Would highly recommend for a ski trip to Niseko! Pro tip -- if you bring your ski boots, you can rent the skis that Kohei San makes, and those are great too -- we had much better experience than our friends renting at rhythm (rhythm had very long lines, charge twice as much for a pair of skis, and the first set of skis that our friend got were not great, so he had to stand in the line again to swap them)

Amazing, homely and welcoming ski Lodge run by Kohei, a local skiier who designs his own skis (Tief powder skis) - a hidden gem in the land of newer and much more expensive Niseko accommodation. Highly recommended.

Loved our trip here. Owner is super nice. Big room and clean facility. It’s not onsen water, but you can take hot bath. Drop us off around 8:15 in the morning to the slope, so you don’t have to walk. We also enjoyed cheese fondue dinner. It was snowing really hard to go out for dinner, so it was good option to have dinner in the lodge. Recommended!

Thanks Kohei for an amazing experience. The fondue prize-fixe menu was wonderful. Great for families. Get a bottle of champagne - it goes great with the meal!