The Best Hotels in Hakuba, Japan for Every Traveller

This lodge is only a five-minute walk to the Hakuba Iwatake gondola, and closer still to chairlifts. Eight of its ten rooms are Western style, simply appointed with room for gear and ensuite bathroom, while a few echo traditional Japanese style, with tatami mats. All rooms look out on the surrounding mountains and snow-draped trees. Wake up to an American-style breakfast – French toast, omelettes, fried eggs – included.

With provided nightwear and slippers, as well as a Japanese green tea set in every renovated room, guests can comfortably taste a local tradition in the rooms at the Hakuba Tokyu Hotel. For quirky fun, book the Pique-Nique room, with forest wallpaper and beds tucked into playhouse structures. After dark you can search out the constellations traced onto the ceiling. Stock up on souvenirs and ski gear at the hotel’s shop, or rent skis on site.

Twenty-five acres of North Japanese Alpine forest envelop the Sierra Resort and more than 200 liters of pale green mineral water run through Mizubashou Onsen per minute, making it the area’s largest hot spring, built more than a century ago. Upscale rooms invite the woods indoors, with accent walls and stone chimneys. Indulge in Kobe beef, a hot pot noodle bowl or sashimi at the resort’s restaurant.

Japanese and Western styles blend in rooms that face either peaks or trees, and are equipped with tea-making facilities, yukata (robes), slippers and fridges. The hotel’s 10-meter-long, open-air hot springs catch breezes off the mountains, or you can soak indoors or book a private bath. Spa instructors guide you in how often to soak and how much water to drink to replenish. A dinner buffet serves seasonal vegetables, Shinshu beef, grilled rockfish and horse sashimi, with a variety of sake.

La Neige was designed with the vision of becoming a hotel surrounded by acres of forest: some of the trees were already more than 100 years old when the hotel opened in 1983. Frank Lloyd Wright inspirations blend with Japanese influences and British style notes – think European marble floors and stone fireplaces in some of the rooms. As intended, windows fill with a screen of trees and glimpses of Mount Norikura, best observed from the whirlpool baths.

Japanese- and Western-style rooms drink in larch forest views at the Mominoki, and the open-air onsen draws water from the second most alkaline spring in Japan, which is said to rid the body of toxins. The hotel boasts its own helipad, and eating options include a Japanese grill buffet and English pub.