Rusutsu Resort — Attraction in Rusutsu

The good:

The location is only 90 minutes drive from Sapporo New Chitose Airport.

Three mountains with a good variety of slopes for beginners and intermediate skiers. You get the famous Hokkaido snow without the crowds of Niseko, and some gorgeous views on the slopes. Don't miss the Heavenly View trail on Mt Isola!

Incredibly family friendly! Everything is in one enormous building, which makes life so much easier with little ones. Amenities are great - they have a ski school, nursery, multiple restaurants and onsens, an indoor swimming pool, rock climbing wall, laundry, ski rentals, a carousel and game room ALL under one roof. Would highly recommend with small children.

Rates are much more reasonable than the Club Meds in Hokkaido. Breakfast and onsen entry are included in the room rate.

The bad: The food is quite mediocre for Japan. The Oktoberfest buffet gets very crowded at peak breakfast and dinner times, and the cafes at Daniel Street for lunch serve very unimpressive sandwiches and soups. There was no ramen stall or place to get a bento box, which are usually everywhere in Japan.

Staff are very friendly and clearly doing their best, but they are understaffed and overwhelmed. My room was not cleaned until the evening each day despite multiple requests for it to be cleaned in the morning. The food stations at the buffets were refilled slowly, and there just weren't enough staff to deal with the demand.

The weird: Giant animatronic...

Great:

A few relatively long runs 3-4km. Lifts are fast compared with older Japanese resort and warm with cover (which keeps me warm during blizzard days). Night ski included in the day pass but rather small area on a south facing slope so can get choppy and nasty after a few days of sunnny days. And u spend more time queuing than skiing. Wide runs and lovely view at the top. Lots of tree area. Rupow!!! Lunch canteen has decent Japanese ramen, don/rice, pizza and they R quite delish and cheap ¥1500-1800 (compared with €40 burger or €10 for a small beer in Swiss Alps!!!)

Absolutely would come back. Bit small compared with European Alps but the powder!!!

Not so great:

need to queue more than half an hour for a gondola to get back to main hotel area during busy weekend/holiday.

Day pass discount limited, so 2 days is the same as 4 days?!... Bit pricey compared with European Alps where there R multi days discount and covering...

Advanced skier from Canada, originally wanted to ski off piste while in Japan, however didn’t have avalanche gear and came down solo.

WOW, Rusutsu blew my mind away. As an advanced skier you will have a far better time here than Niseko especially if you are doing on piste skiing, and don’t feel comfortable going into the back country.

Rusutsu blew Niseko out the park, and everyone I spoke to at my lodge agreed. Maybe as an intermediate skier you won’t get as much out of it, and would enjoy more of a resort town and the immediate amenities that Niseko offers, but wow.

Even on none snow days, the tree skiing was all waist deep powder, no matter where you went. It far outclassed my experience at Niseko, and would highly recommend to try a day here if you are in the area.

Our ski group (4 other individuals I met at my lodge) all unanimously agreed that this was the best skiing they’ve ever done (we’ve skied whistler,...