Niseko Ski Hire & Snowboard Rentals
There are various Niseko ski hire shops located near the slopes that can provide you with all your snow equipment rental requirements, including those all important fat skis and powder snowboards for the deep powder. The quality of the rental equipment is generally higher than many other Japanese ski resorts where you can often find rear entry boots! Also with the Niseko ski and snowboard shops, you don’t need to worry that they won’t have skis, clothing or boots for big westerners. Even Mr Big Foot is catered for!
Whilst there are a good number of ski rental shops in Niseko, it always pays to pre-book your rental equipment especially if you want performance gear. Many of the Niseko ski hire shops will transport either you or your gear to and from your accommodation.
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Niseko Ski School - For Adults & Teens
There are several choices for ski and snowboard schools (also known as snow sports schools), with at least one Niseko ski school program on offer at each of the four Niseko ski areas.
For private lessons, most ski schools have a pickup service or have several meeting points so you don't need to worry too much about where the ski school is based.
Group lessons on the other hand may have only one or two meeting points:
- Gondola Snowsports (Go Snow) have meeting points for adult and teen group lessons at both the Hirafu Gondola base area and the Ace Family chair lift. As the official Hirafu ski school, you'll receive lift priority access at Hirafu, so you won't need to wait in lift lines.
- NISS (Niseko International Snowsports School) has the meeting point for group lessons at Hanazono. As the official Hanazono ski school, you'll receive priority lift access at the Hanazono ski resort.
- ISS Japan has meeting points for group beginner lessons at Hirafu.
If you're an advanced rider but just want a few tips on riding powder whilst being guided around Niseko,
GoSnow offers powder guiding with as little or as much hiking and/or traversing as you want. Avalanche safety gear rental and instruction on its use is included in the rates, and you can choose from half day, full day or 3 days of guiding/tuition.
Propeak also offers private lessons that can incorporate travel to nearby ski resorts such as Kiroro, Rusutsu, Kokusai and Moiwa.
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Niseko Child Care
Niseko is very well set up for children including a range of kids’ activities and various options for childcare.
Here's an overview of Niseko child care options.
Mobile Child Care & Babysitting Niseko
There are several providers of child care services where the carers come to your accommodation day and/or night to mind your children. An example is
Niseko Babysitters who provide in-accommodation babysitting services with English speaking staff for children of all ages – from newborns to adolescents.
Alpen Hotel Childcare
A little cheaper than using babysitting services, the Alpen Hotel provides child care services, located in the Upper Village near Ace quad lift#2 and the Welcome Centre bus stop. Reservations are required via alpen@grand-hirafu.jp. The staff don’t speak fluent English but this is not a problem for most children.
Niseko Kids Club
Niseko Kids Club is located at
Aya Niseko at the base of the beginner Family run and chair lift, providing child care for ages 12 months to 6 years.
Click here for more information and to make a booking enquiry.
Niseko Kids
Niseko Kids provides child minding for the little ones ages 1 to 6, for a half day or full day. For children ages 3-5 there’s also the option to include a one hour private ski lesson. They also have a Night Owls program in the evenings from 6-9pm. Niseko Kids is located next to the
Hilton Hotel Niseko Village (
Niseko Village).
Niseko On-Mountain Eating
Niseko has 17 on-mountain restaurants with many of these located at the main base areas, or there are mid-mountain facilities such as Rest House Ace Hill (with the famous thermometer commonly used as a meeting place), and the King Bell Hut. Most of the restaurants have cafeteria “fast-food” that is very reasonably priced. Fare includes traditional Hokkaido dishes such as ramen, pork buns, domburi, tonkatsu and other curries.
A favourite amongst the gaijin is Hanazono 308 at the base of the Hanazono area. The food is more expensive than elsewhere although the servings are huge. This new building has limited seating, so try to avoid the peak lunch hour if you can.
Niseko Banking Facilities
You will need to budget reasonably well prior to visiting Niseko as there is not ready access to lots of ATMs that accept international cards. There’s an ATM at Yamashizen (a little further up the hill from Wild Bill’s), the supermarket in Hirafu (at Shiki), and at the post office or 7-Eleven in Kutchan.
Niseko is still largely a cash society and only about half of the restaurants accept credit cards, so factor this into your budget. Thankfully credit cards are accepted for lift ticket purchases (unlike at a few Hokkaido resorts), ski and snowboard rental, and most activities.