To get to the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort from New Chitose International Airport, you can get buses or trains and/or buses and taxis and combinations but because we were arriving a bit late, and the fact I had saved about $15,000 on flights, I just booked a taxi, which was about HKD$1,500. Not cheap, but because our flight was delayed, we’d have missed the last bus, ended up having to pay for a taxi, or had to get a train to some place then taxi. If you’re really on a budget it’s worth checking out their website for transportation options, otherwise just get a taxi. You can go online and book a New Chitose Kiroro transfer, but most of them just use taxi’s, which are not actually that much cheaper, if at all, then getting a taxi from the airport and having him stick on the meter.
Anyway, I pre-booked and prepared online but won’t be doing that again – what a nightmare. Driver showed up on time and was waiting with a sign on my name on it – no worries there. Got a nice little handshake and “nice to meet you” which was unusual for Japan, so all good. At street level, he told us to wait inside for 5 minutes. Almost 20 minutes later he shows up and takes us out to the taxi. No idea what he was doing. Either had some dinner or took a long dump.
This guy, whilst very polite and nice, would do well in Hong Kong as a taxi driver as he’d perfected the art of piano pedal driving, that is constantly tapping his foot up and down on the accelerator as if he’s determined not to keep it a consistent speed. I’m writing this bit now in the car, I’ve never been car sick in 45 years, but I’m close. One minute we’re driving 80km in the slow lane, next minute we’re doing 110km/hr. Just think of the worst pumping of the accelerator on and off that you’ve ever encountered. Double it, and imagine it going for 2 hours not stop. Absolute bloody nightmare. Thank Jesus I didn’t book a car going back, I’d honestly rather walk back in snow and rain with 2 suitcases, in the nude, than drive another metre with this guy.
But let’s get to the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort. I booked the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort via the Starwood website, which I have decided is a complete waste of time and money, unless you are staying there for over 100 nights a year. The prices are more expensive than my genius discounts on booking.com, and the rates to get a cancellable booking are 25% higher than most pother sites. I’ll be abandoning the Starwoods points program.
I made a few inquiries to the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort before coming and they got back to me within 24 hrs so they’re easy to deal with . The English isn’t that great but enough to provide you with an answer to most common queries. Pre-stay communication was good and if you have any special requests you shouldn’t have any problems getting answers from the resort before you come. The actual Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort is alright, it’s ageing a bit and looks a little worse for wear, but nothing worse than I’ve stayed at (Check out our reviews of Rusutsu and Tomamu) and definitely nothing too much to complain about.
Despite being a Starwood Member, they stuck us in a room basically as far away from the lift as possible, and instead of overlooking the ski field, we were facing the car park and hotel entrance. Not the end of the world, but really, again, as a Starwood member, you’d have thought they would have put us in a decent room. Anyway, no biggie. The room was pretty small, actually average size for Japan, but the bathroom was tiny and the shower was not big enough for both Grobbler and I to fit in at the same time. Again no big deal, but just prepare yourself, as you should when you’re staying almost anywhere in Japan, for the rooms to be rather on the cosy side.
Now the absolute worst part of the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort and that is the food. Day 1 breakfast we had a pretty standard breakfast buffet for this type of hotel in Japan, all the usual rather tasteless omelettes and eggs, cereals, nice milk, orange juice. Went in around 730, no wait and whilst busy, not too many people. Overall about a 6/10 but perfectly fine to fill you up and get a good says start. They have this silly system of online bookings for all the restaurants, you have to scan a code, then it’ll open up a restaurant booking app, and you have to make a booking through this for all of the restaurants. I don’t know what happens if you don’t book through the app, but I wasn’t prepared to take that chance. Also when checking in if you have a Starwood membership, you can get a temp card and get 10% off food.
For lunch, there’s a cafeteria which sells reasonably prices things like beef rice, udon, noodles, fried chicken, french fries and the typical Japanese “fast food”. Unfortunately I forgot my yen in the room and as we were in basically one of the furtherest away rooms, couldn’t be bothered to go back. Ended up eating at the restaurant we had breakfast at, which had a very limited (like 3-4 items) set menu. We chose the 1/4 chicken was pretty rank with some soggy french fries. You can get better food at 2 star hotels than this. Probably amongst the bottom 5 chicken and chips I’ve ever had the displeasure to eat.
For dinner at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort, decided on the Robata Grill – Robata Grill “Hokki”. Grobbler loved his Salmom Roe and Sashimi and Shrimp Tempura, but I ordered a crap cod starter, some expensive 100gm beef that was cold and oily, and some more grilled cod for a main which took 35 minutes and tasted like something you’d expect in the middle of the top wops. Staff were good, friendly and other than the cod, food was quick.
Not a good first day of eating and unfortunately it didn’t, and doesn’t get any better in terms of the food. Most of the good restaurantsn (at least rated higher on the app you need to download) seem to be in the Tribute Hotel, which you can access by shuttle bus, which runs every 10 minutes or so. The reception will tell you you can’t walk, but it’s about 600-700m and would take 5 minutes. Despite being rather easy to get to, we never once went down as it’s a bit of a pain especially if you go down to the SnowPark like Grobbler and I did every afternoon. It means going down to the SnowPark, going back to the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort, getting dried off, changing clothes, having a rest for 30 minutes then heading back down. That obviously isn’t going to be everybody’s schedule but it was a pain for us.
On the second night we ate at Rivierouge” International Buffet – which is basically the main restaurant at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort and the one you eat breakfast at Absolutely fowl buffet costing around HKD$350 per person. This would be probably the worst buffet I’ve had in quite some years and definitely in my list of top 5 worst buffets. It’s like all the food is leftover from 1-2 days ago and the taste is just horrible. If they paid me $350,I wouldn’t eat that rubbish. Grobbler had some sushi and salmon roe and the dessert was ok, definitely the best part of the whole meal.
Sunday lunch we ate at the cafetaria, (Cafeteria “Lumiere”), Grobbler had some miso noodles and I had some curry, both of which were rather rank and on par with what we had had so far. For Monday lunch we at the cafeteria again. Both of us had beef rice and egg, which was by far the best thing we had and we’d eat that for the remainder of the trip for lunch. Unfortunately the cafeteria closed at 4:30 otherwise we would have eaten there for dinner.
Not for the best part of the Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort and that is the lack of people. Sure, it was coming ip to end of season (late March/Early April) and many other resorts are closed or closing down, but because Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort is a bit higher than many other ski resorts in Japan, the snow stays around longer. Regardless, despite the hotel appearing somewhat full, there was absolutely nobody skiing. I mean, for 4 days we never waited not even a second to get on a lift. You basically have the mountain to yourself and it’s bloody awesome. You could go down runs and basically have them to yourself.
The snow was fine, all the powder has gone but for our sakes, or for people who have kids, and just want to have a good time with them and do some skiing with them, Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort is perfect. We had 2 good, clear fine days and 2 overcast days. One day it rained quite a bit and that made the snow really sticky and on the beginner runs it was basically a bit hard to go down because you didn’t have enough speed. Anyway, overall, the skiing was good. Not great for advanced skiers but for a few days or some time with the kids, again, it was perfect.
The staff at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort were overall very good, quite a few expats so English is not a problem and most of the locals know enough English to get by. It’s a true ski-in ski-out resort, you walk out the doors, put on your skis and get on the lift. If it wasn’t for the absolutely revolting food here, this would be so much better and I’d be happy to go back there again.
For more information about Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort, check these links:
– Snow Park at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort
– Ski Equipment Rental at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort
– Skiing at Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort
For more information about Kiroro Ski Resort in general, please visit these pages. Or if you’ve got questions about Sheraton Hokkaido Kiroro Resort ask us on Twitter here.
