Having Skied in Vail, Davos, Val d'isere, I am considering Japan. For a Sydney based It seems there’s no much difference in costs in going to Vail or Japan. My Preferences are, Long runs, ski in/out accommodation and gondolas to take you up the mounts. Any input advise appreciated.
Go to Vail, you did'nt mention anything in your preferences about the love of POW so Japan wouldn't suit.
If you will be paying for your lift tickets, then perhaps you need to factor that in.... - Day ticket at Vail: $145 USD = $190 AUD (online weekly is $835 USD or $1100 AUD) - Day ticket at Happo (Hakuba): 5200yen = $66 AUD. (or with free coupon $60 AUD)
It's the flip side of the Epic Pass and all its variants. A very successful business model it seems. And of course no one in their right mind would travel to Colorado from Australia and buy walk up lift tickets at the major destination resorts.
Based on your preferences I'd recommend Vail. Now if you had said you wanted deep powder, cheap lift tickets, yummy food and amazing hospitality, then I would have said Japan.
Plus ski in/ski out (a great fixation of Australians it seems) is much harder to find in Japan. Of that which you can find a lot is usually not close to restaurants, etc. Villages here were, in the main, not built for skiing. They mostly existed as onsen/mountain towns and when skiing became popular lifts were installed above the village. Gawd help those poor folk that have to walk/drive a couple of minutes to the lifts...
So one does not have to struggle up the hill... In actual fact 50-60 years ago this was one of the main ways of getting up to Akakura Onsen from Myoko-Kogen (then called Taguchi) Station.
Thanks for the views and inputs. In Japan which resort boasts the longest ski run ? how long is it ? From the comments I understand ski in/out accommodation are not common. I don’t want to spend half hour on a bus to get to a ski lifts.
No. Trump doesn't ski in Japan. He skis Vail. But if he went to Japan he'd be grabbing it by the ....you guessed it. Beat him to it!
Mr. Google is your otomodachi https://www.google.com/search?q=japan+which+resort+boasts+the+longest+ski+run+?
You can definitely find ski in/out, but a lot more of the accommodation you may have to walk 50-60m. Longest ski run in Japan is 8.5km. But you need to ask yourself other more important questions, like "how do I find my skis when they come off?", and "why do I need to time my breathing?"
I dunno. Look at Madarao. Ski in ski out with a restaurant on the premises. Future years may have 2 restaurants on the premises.
There is a huge difference between not being ski in ski out and spending half an hour on a bus. In fact if you want to ski multiple resorts you are better of having good access than being ski in ski out. We have access to 4 resorts with the furtherest being 10 minutes away. If you do travel 30 minutes that gives you access to oh about another 7 or more resorts.
8.5km run means Myoko Kogen...from Tokyo would it be cheaper to hire a car ? Nowadays google GPS app makes it so easy to get around. we are 4
Won't have snow tyres. The road tolls round trip from Tokyo will be around $120. Plus petrol. Hire from Nagano city, and it will include snow tyres.
Navigation is easy. All the cars have a navi system. Some can be set to English. Most you can put in a phone number. Recently we learnt how to set a destination in the car's navi system. Problem is we have not learnt how to turn it off. So until we go to the place we have to listen to the navigation. Well we can actually reset the destination. But it took a while to work that out. It is interesting how few people can read a map over here because they all rely on the navi system in their car. Chalet Madarao has no phone number yet. Several people have needed us to meet them at the main hotel because they could not find the place even though it is marked on google maps. Most people hire cars at the shinkansen station nearest their destination. Hoping of a plane and having a long drive is not a wise idea. Also, then you usually get 4wd and winter tyres. But you do need to book early enough to ensure getting a 4wd.
