Madarao Kogen Hotel

This place is fantastic for skiing at Madarao Mountain! It’s right on top of the mountain, so you wake up to the beautiful view and ski down first thing in the morning. The room view is also amazing!

Although it is the official hotel of the ski resort, it does not located in a best "ski in ski out" place, you literally need to take a very slow chairlift to come back hotel after you finish the run in the main area at the end of the day. Room was very old and cold, heard a group of people loudly chatting in the room above room, went upstairs to check and confirmed about it, and it was 1:30 am, while you can't find any staff at the reception, i made couple of call to lobby by the phone in the room, finally got someone the answered it, i clearly explained the situation to him, hope he would do something, but sadly those people still talking and make noise with no change, and it happened once again in the next night, sign... Besides, even if you drive here, if there is a heavy snow fall at the night, you basically stuck here in the hotel got no where to go and no shops around.

Love this hotel. The key ingredient: the staff, so very friendly and polite. Especially Uda at the front desk, she was always cheerful, attentive, and went out of her way many times to see to our needs. She is the perfect representative of everything friendly and positive about this resort experience. This was our first ski trip to Japan and the amenities are such a pleasant surprise. The hotel has its own ski rental, lift tickets sold right outside the door, 2 different restaurants, and its own onsen. Which was a new and lovely experience for me. The hotel is a bit older, and the bathroom is small for western standards, but the bidet more than made up for that ( love it ) and the onsen took care of the daily bathing ritual ( for me ). Heater worked well as well as the wi-fi throughout the hotel. The restaurants were a nice convenience, we paid extra for breakfast and dinner vouchers, and it was fun wearing our provided yukatas ( robes ) all day in the hotel ( not required ). The ski runs are well marked, and the ski lodges had delicious Japanese fare that blew our minds. And the Madapow! ( Madarao powder ) generously snowed down on us. Overall, would highly recommend Madarao Kogen Hotel. Again, arigato gozaimasu to Uda and the entire hotel staff that made our 3 day stay so very lovely and relaxing. Would definitely stay here again in the future. Fred Ermac, Jan 2025

Went for 5 nights over Xmas had a great time. The service was very good and there was always somebody to help at the front desk and always spoke good English. The rooms and facilities are a bit dated and could use a good renovation, however everything was clean and tidy and worked very well. We had a good room that looked right out over the mountain. This is the main lodge in this area at the top of the hill and the bus dropped us and picked us up to the train station right out front, it was all easy to work out when we arrived and was comfortable and affordable. The restaurants were a bit tough for us, as we usually like to get out of the hotel and visit places. Options were pretty limited, all the places real small. It didn't help that it was Xmas too and some places closed. The lift lines during the week were great, we never stood in a line. Over the weekend it got busier, but I would say it was never crowded, even though this was Xmas week. The hotel sits right at the end of a lift, so it was always easy to get "home." Def would do this again!