Penke Panke Lodge and Apartments — Hotel in Hakuba

Located at the top end of happo very close to the top quad and happo shuttle bus run. I would recommend staying a little lower down the hill as it’s quiet the walk into town if you need anything or just want to explore. About 30mins walk (45- an hour back up hill) to downtown Hakuba which has some great local shops and food. I can see the potential with rooms being renovated and the lounge area very modern and inviting. However the kitchen didn’t smell inviting for me to cook in and in my opinion needed a bottle or two of disinfectant and some elbow grease. Hence we resorted to eating out every night. The staff in Penke bar were a very mixed bag, as you couldn’t fault the boys in the Penke bar or chef, but the restaurant manager (breakfast) she struggled to care in the slightest and I think I managed a half raised smile once in 7 days. Breakfast was a very hit and miss event with “she who won’t smile” sitting out front enjoying her smokes while the guests waited patiently for simple pleasures like bread for the toaster, cereal in the dispenser or the p/c yoghurts to be placed out on the buffet. Hiro, and the South American contingent were great from both F&B and accommodation side. The highlight was the cleaner singing and playing guitar on her break one afternoon when we were snowed in.|From a room’s perspective they are a good size and we had a renovated one with a lovely bathroom.|The noise coming from the hot water system that runs through the walls of rm21 & 20 was like a small generator or like sitting in a Rex airline flight next to the turbo prop… and if you sat up in bed and rested you head against the wall to read your teeth would chatter. This made the week a little sleepless and when discussed with Greg I was offered an explanation of the fact they knew it was an issue and are trying to resolve it along with a simple “sorry about that”. I just don’t understand selling rooms at full board when you are aware of an ongoing issue. ||But I get it, it’s post Covid times and we should be happy to be out exploring again, so having average service and sleepless nights I guess should be taken with a grain of salt. Unfortunately this is not the first business to suffer from the lack of available talent pool post Covid times. ||Having stayed at the sister hotel (one of 15 in the group as I understand) I would have expected a much higher standard, simply based on our experience at mojo lodge. Hence I simply can’t give this experience anything higher...

This lodge was conveniently located next to the Happo One Sakka lifts (5 mins walk that the kids did easily). So perfect for families doing kid lessons at Evergreen.|Decent sized family room for 4. Bunk and Queen. My only criticism of the room was the noise. We were in room 21 which was under the stairs so you heard every time someone walked up and down. (Mostly ok as everyone goes to bed early). Also presuming what was the water heater in the rear wall was so loud, as well as the fridge. I didn’t complain about this as nothing that can be done, but it made for a very restless sleep. Would ask for a different room next visit. I note a previous review also mentioned this room’s noise.|The lodge itself had a good little common area and play room for the kids. The best part was that the Penke Bar is 5m out the front door. This was where breakfast was (cooked breakfast every morning but is made to order so just be more organised time wise than us) and you could also get takeaway drinks and meals back to the lodge when you couldn’t be bothered going out, also at lodge discount rates. Bar staff were so friendly.|Ski/Board rentals also on site. Thanks to Andy for fitting out our big group with such patience. Andy was a big hit with the kids too (and they would have been annoying). |Reception staff were so helpful doing shuttle runs to town and booking dinners etc for us. No complaints from them even though I think sometimes we might have pushed the friendship a bit, like when we couldn’t get a taxi home and they came to pick us up. Grace in particular was so helpful getting us to Tsugaike for the day when we had no idea what we were doing, and again Andy saved us by running us to the bus terminal with minimal notice when we couldn’t get a taxi. We even got saved by a sister Gateway hotel manager when we found ourselves stranded and lost in town and he ran us back to the Sakka lifts.|Justin made the booking process easy, we did everything by email including pre-booking rentals.|Plenty of places to eat within walking distance, the Rabbit Hole etc. |We would definitely recommend Penke Panke lodge and would have no hesitation staying there again next time we come to Hakuba. (If they...

Exceptional Lodge stay in Hakuba. Justin, Greg and their staff are the most accommodating and hospitable hosts you will find, along with the rest of the team they made our 2 weeks stay the most enjoyable fun our family has had whilst travelling in Japan.

The breakfasts were great and the Penke bar was a hit at night for a beer, as was the Rabbit hole directly across the road. There were a number of great options for eating out with a few minutes walk. The morning shuttle bus to the ski slopes made things extremely easy as did being able to ski back down Happo-one to within 100m of the lodge at the end of your ski day. Evening shuttles to the shops were also a lovely touch.

We had a 2 bedroom apartment for our stay which was exceptionally clean and well laid out, and made our time very comfortable, it also allowed for time out when it was needed.

Many thanks to Justin and Co for leaving such a great first impression of Japan and the Hakuba Region on us.

We cant wait to get back...