Photos of The Owl House
https://photos.app.goo.gl/8dX3f9GEehvXJvcp6

We spent almost 2 weeks in The Owl House this December. The property is new and nicely renovated. The folks from the agency looking after the property were friendly and professional. Seems like a dream vacation for the family until we learned that The Owl House is highly inaccessible. This critical information was not shared in Airbnb or any internet reviews we have researched.

On Day 1 we arrived at night in Lower Hirafu. We were greeted by a team from the agency. We learned that the airport transport (a private mini bus) is not willing to drop us off at the property so the agency folks were there to help with the luggage. We have two families with 4 young children (age 1, 4, 6 & 7) and slightly over 10 luggage so we had to do our part to carry the luggage as well. It was only there and then that we learned, the only way to access the property is via a flight of 40 +wooden stairs, covered heavily in snow and very slippery. The distance from where we were disembarked to the property is about 100m. The public bus that takes us to the ski base is another 30m from the stairs.

We were advised against renting a car as the property has no parking space. More importantly, the roads (also covered in snow) surrounding the property are not covered by insurance (as mentioned casually by one of the agency folks). Apart from the snow covered roads, the insurance is the key reason why Airport Transfer and Taxis are not willing to pick or drop us at the property. Even if it wasn’t an insurance concern, the vehicles aren’t willing to drive down to the property too. We called for a taxi once and the taxi got stuck and couldn’t get back up the escarpment due to the road condition.

Over the next 12 days, the adults ended up carrying all the ski gears for the family up and down the stairs every day. It was so slippery most of us fell multiple times. On the 3 days or so, our children were no longer motivated to climb the stairs so we ended up carrying them as well. This was absolutely horrible!

Even without young kids, it’s still a torture physically to access the stairs on a daily basis. The other part of lower Hirafu is fine. Unless you are looking to build some serious quad muscles, we would never recommend The Owl House or any surround properties in that area.
See our video here