Zao Onsen Zao Shiki No Hotel

“Beautiful Hotel”

Stayed in the Japanese style tatami room. It's warm and cozy. Clean and well kept. The dinner was very delicious, especially the grilled beef, tender and juicy. Breakfast was buffet style, not too bad, plenty of food to choose from. Staff members were warm and friendly. We were picked up by hotel s… more

Stayed in the Japanese style tatami room. It's warm and cozy. Clean and well kept. The dinner was very delicious, especially the grilled beef, tender and juicy. Breakfast was buffet style, not too bad, plenty of food to choose from. Staff members were warm and friendly. We were picked up by hotel staff from bus station within 10 min after a call was made to them. The driver also sent us to our next hotel nearby. View from our hotel room was serene and pretty.

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“Authentic Japanese onsen hotel, a bit removed from the town and ski lifts”

There were many things to love about this hotel in the stunning ski town of Zao Onsen itself. But I found the hotel had a few minor downsides. The hotel offers free shuttle via bus twice a day from Yamagata station - (an easy Shinkansen ride from Tokyo). You need to book your shuttle bus pick-up a… more

There were many things to love about this hotel in the stunning ski town of Zao Onsen itself. But I found the hotel had a few minor downsides. The hotel offers free shuttle via bus twice a day from Yamagata station - (an easy Shinkansen ride from Tokyo). You need to book your shuttle bus pick-up and drop offs in advance via the hotel. Check-in was fine - it is a very Japanese hotel and English is quite limited. We were a party of 3 each wanting separate beds and were promised a third bed which turned out to be a futon on the floor. We booked "half board" which includes breakfast and dinner - breakfast was good with enough western and Japanses options. Dinner was exceptional with wagu beef, shabu shabu or hotpot and multiple exquisitely-presented side dishes of salads, soups, sashimi and much more. The attention to detail in the food presentation was gorgeous and the staff were lovely. We had requested and been promised a "mountain view" room, but in my opinion, we didn't get one. Our room, on level 3, looked out onto some trees and was dark. I had to stand directly next to the window and crane my neck upwards to see the mountain top and what the weather/sky was looking like. The corridor to our room on level 3 was also really dark and windowless, and so we had repeated fumbling to be able to see the lock to get the key into the lock to enter the room. I later learned that rooms on level 4 to 6 - have true mountain views and are much brighter. These floors also have fantastic views from the light-filled corridoors that overlook the other side of the mountains. In short - do not stay on level 3. Dark :-( I had an unplesant experience after getting a small nose bled while I was aleep on night one. (First time it's ever happened - perhaps due to the altitude change). There was a smallish mark on the pillow and the staff asked me about it in the middle of the lobby and insisted on charging me for the damage. I Googled and it seems a "good" hotel wouldn't ever try to charge a guest for minor, unintentional damage. Given we'd paid more than $1k per night, I found it quite disappointing. It was only a small fee, so why did they even bother? The hotel provides average ski/ snowboard and ski-gear rental. It's fine - but if you're after performance equiment, you'll need to go to the Zao village. The hotel also sells ski lift vouchers (cash only) at a slight discount which you need to then take to a lift office to exchange for lift tickets. The hotel is not ski-in/ ski-out. The nearest ski lift is ever so slightly too far to comfortably walk to in ski boots, although we did it on several days. The hotel provides a free shuttle bus to the lift, but the hours are rigid and you need to book it in advance even though you're only travelling a few hundred metres. The hours in the AM were 0830 or 1030. 0930 would have been helpful but it was not an option! The nearest ski lift is the "Zao Ropeway" which goes direct to the summit. Unfortunately, this cable car service prioritizes day-tripper non-skiers who come to Zao to see the "snow monsters" and then leave. The skiers/snow boarders face massive, hour+ waits to get on the Zao Ropeway. The alternative is a series of quite antiquated chairlifts (several have wooden seats and no safety bars) that are quite slow - but better than waiting in an endless line for the cable car while the non-skiiers sail through. We have stayed previously on the western side of the Zao township (Hotel Oakhill) and found the ski lift access much swifter. The in-hotel onsen was lovely, and clean with superb forest views. There is also an outdoor onsen (rotenburo) but you need to walk across the very icy, slippery carpark to get to it. The hotel provides robes and boots to walk there, but in the heart of winter, we preferred the indoor onsen at the hotel - which has a couple of massage chairs too. Overall it was a good stay, but I probably wouldn't stay at Zao Shinki No Hotel again.

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