Club Med Kiroro Grand — Hotel in Akaigawa

Club Med Kiroro Grand always provides the most satisfying snow holiday. We were at the resort last year (2024 season) and absolutely couldn’t resist coming back for more. This was our 4th season with Club Med, the first two being in Tomamu pre-Covid, and then Grand last year as well. Out of all the 4 seasons, this year definitely secured top place. ||The transition from the airport to the resort was incredibly smooth, and at the check-in counter at the airport they gave the Peak guests yellow tags to put on their luggage so they could be told apart (so Grand doesn’t get tags but it’s just for the purpose of telling which is which). The bus ride was not too long, 1 hour 45 mins, with a stop on the way where we could buy some food from the convenience store or go to the bathroom. On our departure day (leaving the resort), we were able to be very relaxed because everything was handled so smoothly and we didn’t have to stress about anything.||When we arrived at the resort, our luggage was taken by some staff to our rooms while we met Tiffany, who took us straight to the ski pro shop to organise the ski hire. She is such a beautiful person, super friendly and approachable, and she was always so eager to help whenever we needed. Eros from Argentina at the ski pro shop helped us with organising suitable skis, equipment and boots and he was very kind as well. ||Camila and Kyle from teens club were really fun and they had some good activities such as tote bag painting/decorating and mocktail making. It was good to be able to have dinner with both of them as well. ||Foodwise? I don’t even know where to begin!! The buffet has different sections for different cuisines, such as Italian, Japanese and western in general. The chef specialty dishes were amazing quality and good to try for the first time. There was such a wide variety of food and the menu changed every day. I definitely enjoyed the lamb, nigiri/sashimi and other traditional Japanese dishes that I wouldn’t get back home. And also the pumpkin croquettes at breakfast, they are literally amazing and I don’t normally like pumpkin so that’s saying something! They also had a noodle bar, omelette bar (breakfast only), yogurt bar (breakfast only) and dessert bar (lunch and dinner). The desserts were delicious and looked stunning as well. Aside from the main meal times, the afternoon tea time was something to look forward to after a day out in the snow. I especially enjoyed the ham and cheese toasties (which I know sounds cliche but these ones were AMAZING). Also the crepes and hot chocolate were so so satisfying and tasty after a day of skiing. Head chef John and his team, along with Sam F&B manager always had a smile on their faces and worked tirelessly to provide an incredible experience. James from Australia (go Aussie!!) always had a friendly smile serving drinks at the bar and he was really approachable and kind as well. Definitely a 5-star dining experience at Club Med. ||Let’s talk skiing. I was blessed to have had Robbie from Taiwan as my club 3 instructor for a few days and he was an amazing teacher who had some really useful drills to practice parallel turning and stuff. He was very patient and able to manage a large group of students. Steve from London I also had for my last day of club 3 and he took our group on some runs I hadn’t done before, so we were prepared for club 4. On top of that, he was very funny and knew how to make everyone laugh. We got to have dinner with both of these instructors as well. When I moved to club 4, I had 2 instructors for 2 days, Anna and Sine. They were both really friendly and patient and had some good drills to improve our skiing technique. To my surprise, club 4 was a really big group (about 20ish) so the instructors took us all up as a group and had us ski down a slope to observe each of our levels and from there split us into smaller groups based on where we had room for improvement (eg. parallel turning, speed control, etc). This was good because we were each with a group that had similar abilities and struggles so the whole lesson could be devoted to the same thing for every person, and the smaller numbers (4-6 per group) allowed for us to get more in-depth personal feedback. The snow conditions were different (better and worse depending on how you think of it) than last year. It definitely snowed a whole lot more so there was lots of powder but some days the visibility was insanely low so it was a bit scary at times but the instructors were all really responsible and made sure we were safe. Sean in club 3 was also an outstanding instructor for my mum, who was a bit slow but she was still able to improve her technique and confidence skiing down steeper piste than she was used to. ||We had the pleasure of dining with Tiffany and Roman on our last night. Roman was very chill, friendly and kind, so it was nice to get to know them both better. After dinner and the mini club show we stayed back for the karaoke. It was fun to just hang with Tiffany, Eros and Roman doing karaoke and just chilling. Thanks for making our experience more enjoyable and it was good getting to hang with you guys! ||Some other friendly faces we met were Demi, she was the sweetest and always had a smile on her face, and she was always helpful when we needed it. Romane, Cheryl and Oceane were also really kind and it was nice to see so many smiling faces!! Also from last year it was nice to see Nino who I had a private lesson with last year, and from Tomamu Alan and Isha again, they were really friendly and polite and it was good to see them again.||The room service team was outstanding and made our beds, cleaned our bins and replaced our towels every single day of our stay. Thanks for all the effort you guys put in to making our experience more comfortable! ||On our last night, my mum found out that our bus was departing at 6 something in the morning, which was way too early for us (it was a small mix up) but Tiffany was able to change our bus time to 8:25 ish so that we wouldn’t have to rush. Thanks again Tiffany! ||Ofc, let’s not forget our Chef de Village Merlin, who always made an effort to make everyone’s experience better. You would find her greeting people at their arrivals, making burgers for afteroon tea (with her special sauce) and putting on a spectacular performance at night. She definitely leads her G.O team well, and she instantly remembered us from last year which was nice as well. I just want to say a big thank you to all the G.Os and G.Es at Kiroro Grand who wake up early and sleep (really) late at night to provide the most incredible holiday experience for all their guests. ||One thing that could be helpful to keep in mind is with the ski hire, if in your account you hired them for however many days but then decided not to ski/sb anymore, if you return them on the day before, that day of rental will be cancelled so you’re not paying for a day when you didn’t use the equipment. For us, my parents decided not to ski on the last day, so they returned their skis the day BEFORE the last day (not ON the last day) and that day of ski rental was cancelled. Just keep in mind that if you end up in this situation, make sure to return your equipment the day before, not on the day you intend to not ski, otherwise you will still be charged because its charged by day I’m pretty sure. ||As usual, Club Med never disappoints, and we are really hoping to be back again next year for another unforgettable experience. Thanks again to Merlin and her incredible team for making our stay...

Having experienced ClubMed resorts last year & blown away by just about everything laid out nicely for families, picking Kiroro Grand was an easy decision. And what a right one it was!

Firstly, we had amazing food throughout our stay. My favourite has got to be the japanese corner. They churn out fresh sashimi, chirashi bowls, soba/Hokkaido miso ramen which they rotate. Watch out for the Hokkaido speciality dishes which changes everyday. Japanese Chef Shigeru who has the kindest eyes and widest smile always with a bright greeting for guests. Once, we asked if they have Onigiri, and he made two on the spot for my son!

I also have to give a special shout-out to the management team. Thanks to Merlin & Caleb who are always walking the grounds & making guests feel welcome. And not to mention, Sam Lim, who heads F&B - it's not easy running the entire F&B operation and making sure everyone is well-fed after a tiring day of skiing!

We had two days where the conditions for ski weren't great. In order to make guests feel better, they treated the whole resort to premium Hokkaido crabs one day, & Raclette on the other. They also offered sponsored trip to Sapporo's Tanukikoji Shopping Street on one of those days (guests just had to pay for travel insurance) which we did! Though they couldn't do anything about the weather, they certainly made everyone very happy!

Kids club was as usual, always exceeding expectations. We could always drop the kids off and know they will be in great hands. Kudos to the entire team especially AJI, the choreographer for all the kids performances! He has so much passion and the reason for all the kids'  confidence onstage!

My kids were already hitting the slightly more difficult green slopes and skiing down like pros by the 4th day! Thanks to Bel, Lowri, Jamie R, Jesper who gave them excellent memories!

My ski instructor, George from Greece, was super clear in his instructions. He was coaching the adult beginner classes & graduated the lucky few of us to Club2 by day 3! The class pacing was good, structured with ski drills. Listen when they say don't stuff your pants down your ski boot or you will suffer major bruises and pain!

Alan from the SkiPro shop is one of the most professional GOs I've met. Not only is he always cheerful despite the throngs of people getting fitted for their gear, he has a way of diffusing tempers of people who show up tired after a day of ski. An unreasonable guest showed up determined to give the poor GOs at the SkiPro shop a lashing for the pain he felt in his boot (IKR?!) And Alan very professionally calmed him down quickly.

One thing that could be better: Firstly, I am Singaporean and majority of guests were from SG as I can tell from accents everywhere. Please respect the onsen as a quiet meditative area. There were plenty of signs around telling people to be quiet and announcements gently reminding people of this. However, on an early evening when I visited the female onsen area, people were chatting at the top of their voices like a scene from a wet market. Women were allowing their kids to jump and splash about in the onsen like it was a swimming pool. Kids were taking the pails meant for body rinsing & transferring water from hot to cold pools, and cold to hot.

My advice: visit the onsen in the morning when everyone is at ski class. This will mean you need to skip your own ski class. I've gone during this timing before and it's really pleasant. Try the outdoor onsen bath. It's a magical experience sitting in the natural hot spring water with snow falling right before your eyes.

Overall, 10/10 for our entire holiday at Club Med Kiroro Grand! Snowfall was perfect towards the last few days of our stay and we could even build our first snowman. Caleb, continues to upkeep the ClubMed service by sending us pics & videos of 'Mr. Snowy' for the kids even after we left, as they were worried he would melt away... Thank you for all that you do to preserve this precious family...

Spent 5 nights at the Club Med Kiroro Grand and had a great time. This was my first Club Med Ski Resort (been at two other Beach Resorts with Club Med) and was thoroughly satisfied with the experience. TLDR: Accoms and Food were great, GOs were great, and the service was just awesome. Special praise to our Ski Instructor Nico, but we will get to that later! For general context, we are a family of 3 with a 4 yo daughter, total ski noobs.

The Ski Experience: Being total beginners, we signed up with a 2 hour private lesson at a cost. However, if you dont want to pay, Kiroro Grand has two ski slots every day in in which you can join up for free at different skill levels. The ski pass is also included in your stay, which is great and allows you access to the entire area. The only thing you pay for is equipment rentals which is very affordable. You get the skis, boots, helmets as part of the rental, so that means you need to bring or purchase your ski suits and ski goggles. Upon arrival, the GOs would also bring you to get your equipment picked out and the whole process was very smooth. You get your own lockers per room, very conveniently located. The only gripe i had was that the locker room was a little small that could get crowded at rush hour, but it was still manageable. For kids, they are similarly divided into different skill levels with beginners having their own dedicated course near the resort. They even have a ceremony each week to celebrate and congratulate the kids, so that was an amazing touch. Overall, if you are there to really ski, expect your typical day to be Breakfast, Ski, Lunch, Ski, Onsen/Nap/Other Program, then Dinner, followed by a nice evening program. You would most definitely end each day feeling great.

Its at this time I would like to commend our Ski Instructor Nico who we had the privilege of meeting. He was our private ski class instructor, and also took me for a day up the mountains. He was totally professional and a cool guy as well. I loved it that he was able to cover both me and my wife, and even my 4 year old kid who he was proficient at connecting and making learning fun for all of us. As with Club Med GOs, we built up a close relationship and we met up throughout the stay to eat, drink and chit chat. Heard he only joined Kiroro a few months prior and this was his first job, but he was totally pro and great at teaching. Specifically, he spent the time to observe each individual (despite the group being as big as up to 8) and he gave everyone specific tips and things to work on to improve our techniques. Thank you Nico, and all the best!

The Facilities: Being a ski resort, the facilities were well catered to everyone. You have a gym, some table tennis tables, a dart board, a mahjong room and all. But the main thing was a Onsen and Swimming Pool which is just perfect to sooth your bodies after a day of skiing. As its Japanese, its divided by genders. For kids, they had a specific family timing (1600-1900) as well. It wasn't big, but it was more than sufficient. I wished the outdoor pool was bigger, but it was often empty when I was there so its perfectly fine.

As a summary, Kiroro Grand was perfect as a first time ski experience for our family. The all-inclusive, well planned out programs for everyday was just perfect. The GOs (as with every Club Med) were great. Definitely recommend to everyone. Don't come to Club Med Kiroro Grand if your intention is to explore Japan and its culture. You would find that you would probably not want to leave the...