Furano has many daggy old pensions and hotels, and even the supposed luxury Furano New Prince Hotel is not “new” as it’s stuck in the 90s, and not lavish. Enter stage left, the Fenix Furano properties, where you can now ski and stay in Furano in style. Last year we stayed at the Fenix Furano which was fabulous (you can see our Fenix Furano review here) so we thought we’d change it up and stay at the Fenix West instead. It didn’t quite have the same wow factor as the Fenix Furano but that was mostly because we were staying in a hotel room rather than an apartment.

The room had the same lovely views up to the ski resort. It was nice to wake up in the morning and get a bird’s eye view of the conditions (which were fantastic, divine powder!) The views in the evening were quite surreal when the night skiing lights were on, whilst sipping on a sake and doing some computer work (the wifi was great).

The beds were very comfortable and the bedding in line with what you’d expect for an upscale property. The décor of the bathroom was particularly lovely and the shower was excellent, and so many steps up from the peculiar pre-fabricated bathrooms that you find in many Japanese ski hotels.

Except with a brief check-in as most of it was done online prior, we didn’t really interact with the staff so it’s hard to comment much on service. We weren’t aware that town shuttles are provided or we would have made the most of that.

We had breakfast at the café, which we’ll give the big thumbs up for the friendly service and great coffee.

This was a great place to stay at Furano, which is probably our fave ski resort in Japan!
See our video here