Stayed at the Westin Rusutsu Resort for 5 nights during Christmas in 2016. Bit of a mixture overall but if you want to get away from the crowds at Niseko and stay with the locals, the Westin Rusutsu is a good choice.
Firstly, the rooms at Westin Rusutsu Resort. We stayed in a traditional King Room, downstairs it’s a good size room with two single beds, kitchen and bathroom. When you walk in the room, it’s the top floor, you have the main bedroom which just has a bed, no ensuite bathroom, so you have to walk downstairs everytime you want to wee in the middle of the night. The rooms are ok, shower is good, very slight constant temperature changes throughout every shower but nothing major. Bath is good, it’s small so if you’re a big westerner you might feel a bit squashed in it.
First night at the Westin Rusutsu Resort and my wife was sitting at dinner and was accused of walking out of the Japanese restaurant the previous night without paying. Since we weren’t there the night before, this was rather offensive. No apology from the staff. The breakfast, and food in general is poor. If you want to eat and not wait at dinner time, you have to show up at 5 or 5:30p.m. We showed up at 530 (or 5, can’t remember what time the restaurant opened) at the Japanese restaurant and said we’d be done in 45 minutes (which we ALWAYS are), but the staff said they couldn’t risk it. I walked back an hour later and the restaurant was still 3/4 empty. The breakfast is below standard for a Westin, not a great selection, especially if you eat Western-style breakfasts. There are only 2 restaurants on the Westin side, so you have to take the train across to the other side if you want to try something new. Ordinarily this isn’t a problem, but after a day skiing, trust me, the last thing you want to do is cue for a cramped train just to eat. Overall I’d give the food a 3/10 and the food, along along with the staff, is the biggest let down of the Westin Rusutsu Resort.
Skiing at the Westin Rusutsu Resort: There’s some ok runs, especially if you’re a beginner or intermediate skier. Many of the black runs were closed when we went there. Despite having the biggest snow storm in 50 years a few days earlier, I didn’t come across much powder, to be a fair I only had half a day of skiing by myself so perhaps just didn’t go in the right places. On the plus side, and in my opinion, the best thing about this resort, is the lack of people. There’s absolutely no waits at any of the lifts, and I think the best skiing is on the Westin side. Note if you are a beginner, you will need to take your skis over on the train to the other side for lessons. On the booking.com website it says this is a ski-in, ski-out hotel, but it’s not really, as mentioned, one side you have to get a train over to, the other side, same side as the hotel, you have to walk a bit to get to a lift which takes you to the main ski area. You can’t walk out of the Westin Rusutsu Resort and get straight onto a lift, and you definitely can NOT ski back to the hotel, take your skis and boots off and walk in the door.
The staff at Westin Rusutsu Resort I thought were mediocre. I asked for a birthday cake for my wife and this was not happening. Granted, I asked for it with no notice and wanted it in 30 minutes, but I didn’t expect a proper birthday cake, I just asked for ANY kind of cake slice, expecting they’d be a bakery or they could get something from the buffet, but no, this was not happening, they said I’d have to go to the other side (potentially a 10 minute wait to get there, and to get back) so I gave it a miss. Didn’t seem to make a difference my wife was a Starwood preferred member. Other staff weren’t particularly friendly, sometimes you feel like you’re being a hassle, asking for things. This is not what we’ve been used to having traveled to Japan 5 other times in 2016.
There’s a couple of shops that sell gloves, jackets and other ski gear so if you forget anything you can pick it up here. They also provide ski and boot hire, pretty easy process and doesn’t take too long. Lockers are also provided in the hotel so you don’t have to take anything to your room. The only reason I’d go back to the Westin Rusutsu Resort is because of the lack of crowds and lack of people you see skiing. If it wasn’t for that, I’d definitely not return. We went over to Niseko the last day we were there, and there were way more people and it’s a much more ski-resort/town atmosphere. Not many white faces staying at Rusutsu and seems to be popular with locals. If you don’t care about food too much and prefer to avoid the crowds, this would be a good choice for you, otherwise, give it a miss.
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