Hakuba Yamano Hotel

The friendly staff and facilities made for a pleasant ski holiday with my son. The onsen, cold plunge bath, sauna and massage chairs helped for recovery after a full day of snow activities. Delicious Japanese and Western breakfast fuelled us up. Washing machines and ski drying room was convenient. Kato, the hotel manager was very kind to shuttle us to the train station on our departure and offered a lift to the nearby ski lifts if we didn’t feel like walking. We would love to stay here again and perhaps bring my daughter and wife also.

We are a family of eight and stayed at this family operated hotel for three nights. We enjoyed our stay at Yamano Hotel as Keita San and Monica San are great hosts. They are very hands-on and gave us many good recommendations during our stay. They also helped us in many of the arrangements, which made our stay very easy. Their team of employees are also very accommodating and helpful. We needed ski equipment, so Monica arranged for Woody Ski shop to pick us up and bring us to the shop. At the end our stay, we just left the equipment in the ski room of the hotel and Woody would come to pick them up. Everything was very easy and stress free. The rooms of the hotel were very clean and well-kept. We had a room for four people and it was still relatively spacious. The hotel also has a nice indoor onsen and sauna room, which I went every evening after skiing. It was a nice way to relax and unwind after a tiring day. In the mornings and evenings, the buses to other various ski resorts would also stop at Yamano to pick up or drop off guests, so you don’t have to worry about transportation. The hotel is about a 5-15 minutes’ walk to the nearest restaurants and the Happo One center. We arrived late on the first night, so we had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. The food was good. On the subsequent nights, we walked to the restaurants nearby. Most restaurants had limited seating capacity and were full, so it is better to book a reservation in advance. Overall, we enjoyed our stay very much as we were well taken care of by the great management of Keita and Monica and their team. We would definitely return for another stay here!

My first visit to Hakuba - and choosing Yamano Hotel was pure luck. Many incredible experiences which I will try laying them out : 1) Keita and Monica - excellent hosts (made it felt very much a family hotel) 2) Monica arranged Woody Rentals : to come pick us, get fitted out with our snowboard gear - and Woody will arrange to send it back to the Dryer Room . The shop was in Happo area - so after getting fitting out , we went for our dinner and strolled back to the hotel . The gear appear in the dryer room that night. Talked about good service and shout out to the guys at Woody Rental 3) my kids had late night hunger pangs - and they opened the kitchen though the kitchen has arrays closed . Had the curry rice - which they gobbled up. My son had another curry rice serving the next day 4) my wife hurt her back and went back to the hotel first, and Monica helped to pick up her Insurnace cards in the room - really thankful. I was at the slopes as the kids were in ski school . 5) the evergreen international ski pick up and drop off is just at the hotel entrance - so bringing the kids and coming back from their ski school was an ease 6) we walked to both happo and echoland - through the small roads - about 15-20 mins with young kids pace - so overall not too bad 7) hot onsen tub and cold tub with sauna - amazing . 8) free massage chairs whilst waiting for your Laundry is an added plus! 9) rooms were comfy , clean, well furnished . Read some comments that it was aged but I did not think so. It was great. The size was good as well. Toilets are Japanese sized , but in these resorts, most time was spent in the Ibsen and bath area. 10) great great hospitality - pick up and drop off by Keita . Thanks a lot and helping me with the baggage as it was quite a handful for myself only 11) the greatest host was Keita & Monica’s son - Gakuto , 7 year old bright boy - he made toys for my kids to play, played Uno, and video games - and my kids really had a great time with him. Hope we get to see him soon. He was always somewhere in the hotel - popping in and out and just being a great presence . The overall feel is the hotel has so much history , in a family oriented setup which was warm , cosy , and always inviting - made you feel home despite my only 4 nights there . Thank you and sincerely my warm regards Dominic , Yurika and family .

Yamano Hotel is the ultimate ski chalet in Hakuba. It's situated right across from the 1986 Olympic ski jump and just a short stroll to the Happo-One chair lift. It could even be considered a ski-in and ski-out chalet. The rooms are big and comfortable with gorgeous views of the mountains and the valley. This hotel is a family-owned and run business. The owners Mr. Keita and his wife Monica will greet you from the time you get off the bus to the time you enter the hotel parking area. Mr. Keita is an incredible concierge, always attending to any of your needs and willing to assist you with any information. He also provides a free shuttle to the lift, and if you're tired at the end of the day you can call him and he will be happy to come pick you up, even though it's a short distance. For the additional ski resorts, he is happy to make a reservation for the free morning shuttle. They will pick you up right at the parking lot of the hotel and will drop you off at the same place. So you have easy access to the 7 resorts in the Hakuba Valley right from his doorstep. Once you return from your day in the mountain, you can walk straight into a very spacious heated ski room where you can put your boards and skis on a special rack, warm your boots, gloves, ski pants and jacket so all will be ready to go the next morning. After leaving your stuff in the warm room, you can either step across the hall to enjoy their beautiful onsen inside the chalet that has a hot mineral bath, a cold mountain water plunge bath, and a fantastic wooden and hot rock sauna. An additional perk is the two massage chairs in the laundry area that you can enjoy for free. After relaxing in the Onsen and/or massage chair, you can go back to your comfortable and spacious room and relax until you're ready to have dinner at his restaurant at 6pm. And if you choose to go to other restaurants, several of them are just 5-10 minutes walk away, or there are shuttle buses you can take. The hotel also includes a delicious and abundant breakfast buffet that includes traditional Japanese breakfast of miso soup, fermented beans, Japanese rice and more; traditional American breakfast with several types of eggs, bacon, potatoes, and sausage; and traditional Continental breakfast including orange juice, freshly made apple juice, cereals, pastries, and fresh fruit. To summarize our stay at Yamano Hotel, Mr. Keita and his wife Monica made us feel at home and part of their family. That's how well they treat you. This will definitely be the place we stay next time we come to Hakuba.

We are a family of five and would highly recommend this hotel to anyone visiting Hakuba. The hotel is spacious, clean, has great food and the hosts were fantastic in sharing their local knowledge of best places to eat and to ski which helped us immensely on our first visit to Japan. They were also very generous with their time driving us to restaurants and bus connections. The hotel itself is very picturesque and is perfectly located within walking distance to the Happo-One ski chairlifts. It also has easy access by shuttle bus to the other ski fields in the area.