Hakodate Onuma Tsuruga Resort EPUY — Hotel in Nanae

Pros: the two meals included with the stay were simply amazing, aesthetically and taste wise. My parents and I stayed here for two nights and the dishes were never repeated. I admired the chefs and the team’s ability to incorporate local ingredients with french cooking. Will come back again just for the food!

Cons: I’m not sure what this hotel is supposed to be and the whole concept baffles me. I saw the display of trains and a cool interactive game of sort in the lounge, the sculptures scattered around the hotel, the dark wood interior and the french restaurant and wondered…what’s the theme here? Is this supposed to make me feel like I’m in Bali? Or am I supposed to learn about the history of Hakodate and how it’s been influenced by other cultures?

Another thing I must stress is that the staffs attitude really vary from person to person. Special thank you must be given to the kind and hospitable gentleman who drove us to Hakodate for a day trip. He was a gem and shared with us his experience as a local. However, many other staffs seemed to either lack training or the passion in the hospitality industry. You could feel that it was just a job for them (which I understand as well), but as a guest, it felt very off compared to some of the wonderful hospitality we’ve received elsewhere. Of course, it can also because they happened to be tired on the day. Nevertheless, we hope for a more welcoming environment for our future stays (ie. Please do not pass us from a Japanese staff to a Chinese staff then to an English-speaking staff without any heads up...

Chinese New Year is often very tough to book good hotel in Hakkaido , so I searched for less popular location. So I stay in this new hotel in Onumakoen , as it is also close to Hakodate too . I arrived late at 5:30 due to 3 hours train delay from Sapporo. So I walk around 9-10 mins from the station due to snowing, once I arrived the European style modern hotel with English speaking gentlemen help me to check in and show to my room. I guess my room is one out of eight rooms have private outdoor onsen in the room. The room is very big with good size outdoor western style onsen , this is the first time I tried the western style onsen after staying in various Japanese onsen hotel at usd 1500 price range . I must say the quality and standard is nice and it is only around usd 1600 for everything including good selection of whisky and wine in the bar and restaurant. The resturant provided superb French /fusion food with very high standard, I would say it will charge me hkd 1300 per head in Hong Kong . I stayed in the hotel of the same group, and I guess more people will come in the future. You can also enjoy a 3 hours walk in the nearby national park in winter and take 35mins train to Hakodate and to spend 3/4 hours over there. Have a nice trip and hope this write up useful to you. A final note , I only recommend room with onsen , as the public onsen is...

Chinese New Year is often very tough to book good hotel in Hakkaido , so I searched for less popular location. So I stay in this new hotel in Onumakoen , as it is also close to Hakodate too . I arrived late at 5:30 due to 3 hours train delay from Sapporo. So I walk around 9-10 mins from the station due to snowing, once I arrived the European style modern hotel with English speaking gentlemen help me to check in and show to my room. I guess my room is one out of eight rooms have private outdoor onsen in the room. The room is very big with good size outdoor western style onsen , this is the first time I tried the western style onsen after staying in various Japanese onsen hotel at usd 1500 price range . I must say the quality and standard is nice and it is only around usd 1600 for everything including good selection of whisky and wine in the bar and restaurant. The resturant provided superb French /fusion food with very high standard, I would say it will charge me hkd 1300 per head in Hong Kong . I stayed in the hotel of the same group, and I guess more people will come in the future. You can also enjoy a 3 hours walk in the nearby national park in winter and take 35mins train to Hakodate and to spend 3/4 hours over there. Have a nice trip and hope this write up useful to you. A final note , I only recommend room with onsen , as the public onsen is...