Urabandai Grandeco Tokyu Hotel

Comentarios destacados

• ArataTa

  17 enero 2019
  Very easy for skiing

  It's located next to the Gran Deco Ski Area, directly connectted. Renting ski is vey much easier which is in the hotel and the hot spring is quite good. Friendly staff too. Dinner and breakfast is good, scenery from the room (see picture) is good too.

  

• sivasagi25

  21 marzo 2019
  Skiing trip with Family

  Booked this property for 4 days 3 nights.almost 4 hrs drive from Tokyo. Situated at Kitashuobara. Had Twin room to accommodate family of 4. Hotel provide free car park and shuttle service between hotel and ski resort and also to Inawashiro station. Skiing gears and lesson also available here.Hotel guest have priority lane for Gondola lift Room were big and clean with nice view. Breakfast spread was good with western and Japanese choice.Staff was very accommodating and helpful.Hotel has 2 restaurant for dine in however if choose to go out its about 20mins drive away and most of the eatery closed by 8.30pm.Property also offers public Onsen, massage service and free use of laundry facility. Overall good experience and definitely would love to come back.

  

• Brisollies

  08 enero 2020
  Skiing better than expected

  We wanted to try a different ski resort not many Westerners go to. We stumbled across Grandeco Ski Area from someone we met in Yamagata (near Zao). We booked last minute on line. Once we arrived and spoke to a few of the westerners we met - we wish wed booked at home! The price we paid for 2 nights, was more than they got for 5 nights, with daily lift passes! They booked through All Japan ski in Australia. Oh well - we all live and learn. As the 2019/2020 season hasnt been a great one so far (for anywhere in Japan), there were limited runs open. Those that were open we long, wide and lots of fun. Good for beginners, but advanced people also enjoyed. Mid week is almost empty of people, so a fabulous time for those who can make it then. Weekends apparently are much busier as the Japanese make day trips up here. The resorts & ski area are all Japanese. Finding someone who speaks English or has English translations is rare. Google translate was needed. Oh and the lift passes is a piece of paper, so make sure you bring a arm band to put it in. Nothing electronic here. Very low key 80s. There was a good variety of food for lunch and reasonable prices. Buy the ticket at the machine first and then walk over to the food area. Hand over your ticket to get your food. Thankfully we had a Japanese Aussie next to our machine who helped us out. Otherwise we would have ordered by picture alone! Theres nothing else up here - we stayed at the Grandeco Hotel which is ski in/ out of the area. Lovely hotel and good facilities (large western rooms) - however food in the hotel is expensive. We had a big lunch and then just bought a noodle box from the souvenir shop at the resort. They have microwaves on every floor you can use. My suggestion if you want a soft drink (basically only coke) buy it from the vending machine at the ski area (¥200), as at the resort every machine we went to was sold out of coke & the bar charged ¥660!!!! Dinner at the resort is one of 2 places - Japanese or French. Set menus at ¥6600! That was more than what we were paying for 4 people in Zao!!! Transfers with the resort from the train station up to the resort was free and ran 4 times a day. We had a full size bus for just the 2 of us! Make sure you book through the resorts website before coming however. Overall we had a great time here and would recommend it. Just knowing how to save money at the resort (having big lunch at the ski area for example) makes a big difference. Oh apparently the resort does have dinner & breakfast packages so might be worth looking into that. Only Japanese on the tv, so bring a book or cards for night! You cant walk to anywhere else, but apparently resorts nearby do have free shuttle buses to the ski area. Enjoy for a true Japanese experience before the westerners find the area!!!

  

• Steve01010

  13 enero 2020
  Great location although a little expensive...but it was peak season

  Stayed here 1st week of January. It was peak season but still US$8000 for 4 days was a little expensive although this included accommodation, meals, ski passes, lessons and equipment for family of 5. The rooms were large and comfortable. The onsen, especially the outside section with snow falling, was incredible although gets busy around 4-5pm with post skiing crowd. The resort itself is one of the highest, if not the highest, in the region. While this meant it offered the best skiing available in a poor season it also meant it was crowded given there were few other options- the fact that hotel guests get priority on the gondola boarding helped. The ski slopes were a short 300 metres from the hotel with free regular shuttle bus from the hotel. Skiing is good level for beginners to intermediate skiers. The food quality was good but options were limited as the Japanese and French restaurants offered set meals only- would be good if they could offer al a carte options . The meal times were assigned and unfortunately we were assigned the later 7:30pm seating which was a bit of a problem for jet lagged family and unfortunately the hotel was unable to change so make sure you clarify this with hotel when booking if you wish earlier seating. As noted elsewhere there were a number of vending machines in the hotel but they were always out of stock leading you to have to buy very expensive beverages from the cafe. Transfers from local stations were limited as there was no available shuttle after 3pm but the hotel was able to arrange a large taxi for Y8000 each way for about 30 min ride which was reasonable. The staff were extremely friendly and helpful (except for not being able to change the dinner seating time:-( ) . The wifi in the room often was not working so needed to go to public areas to get decent reception but that wasn't a major issue as just went to the cafe when needed to access wifi. Would recommend it as a good family ski option in close commute (approx 3 hrs) from Tokyo - just avoid the costly peak season if possible.

  

• Rein B

  15 marzo 2020
  A great ski getaway for beginners and families, food is pricey though...

  My girlfriend and I have been involved in something called "The Aizu Program" for 2 years running now which is operated by a travel company called "All Japan Ski" who are based in Sydney, Australia. This hotel is part of that program so we stayed here for a week in February 2020. The hotel is very remote and therefore many options for food and other activities (besides skiing/snowboarding) are limited and it can get pretty expensive if you are new to the area. HOTEL: Overall - 4 out of 5. The hotel is like most other the hotels in the region, dated but clean and close to Gradeco snowfield. The rooms, however, are very generous in size and spacious. We stayed in a Deluxe Twin room. Note - all of the rooms come with twin or double beds. There are no queen or king beds that we are aware of. We ended up pushing the two beds together and each day, the staff who serviced our rooms remade the beds in our preferred, arranged format, which was lovely. You can see layouts of their room types on their website. The hotel is large and has outdoor onsens, 2 restaurants, a gift shop, a snow rental store, a massage parlour, a tea station and a laundry facility. This is a ski in ski out resort so you can simply strap on and ski/board down to the snowfield or ask the concierge for a ride and be instantly transported to the snow entrance inside a nice, heated hotel minivan. Need to go back to the hotel? Easy! Simply ask reception at the mountain station and they will radio for a driver who arrives outside the front of the snowfield within seconds, ready to take you back to the hotel, all complimentary. FOOD: Overall - 2 out of 5. The hotel has 2 restaurants, a French one and a Japanese one. You have to book reservations for these in advance. When we found this out, we spent almost 30 minutes with the staff at check-in, planning reservation times for which evening's we wanted to have dinner. We discovered that both restaurants run set menus for dinner ranging between AU$80-$100, per person, per night (and that is excluding drinks). Both restaurants do not operate every single night either, so on some days, your only choice is one of the two and that's it. There are no other hot food/dinner options in a 15 km radius. The food looks fancy when it is presented but it is average tasting at best. We did find one external restaurant which was about 20 mins drive from the hotel called "Mori-Mori" which we highly recommend. The owner is a true local, his food is tasty and the cost of one dinner at the hotel restaurant can easily feed a table for 4 at Mori- Mori and then have some change left over. The hotel can also call you a cab which worked out to be about AU$40-$50 each way. We discovered a 7-11 about 300 meters from Mori-Mori, so while we were out that way, we stocked up on food supplies for the week at a much more reasonable cost than what the hotel restaurants were offering. Oh, and just so you know, the foods at Japanese 7-11's are also amazing and nothing like our crappy, factory processed foods that we have at our convenience stores, here. The hotel proves a buffet breakfast which is served each morning and luckily, was included as part of our holiday package (I heard that breakfast charges are around AU$35 per person each day). They had both Japanese and Westerner options. The food here is plentiful with lots on offer from cereals to muesli and yoghurts, eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, a selection of croissants and bakery treats, jam and other spreads, tea, coffee, fresh fruit, salads and so on, they have something for everyone so you shouldn't have any issue there. If only their dinners were the same..... The gift shop has packaged foods too (like noodles) if you need a snack and there are some 24-hour vending machines near the laundry area as well (we found these machines were mostly out of stock of most items though). They really need to pick up their game in the food department. STAFF: Overall rating 5 out of 5 The staff are the highlight of this hotel. They made our stay worth every minute. They will give you a 110% service every time and expect nothing in return. We had bought a selection of Tim-Tams (a popular Australian chocolate biscuit) which we brought over with us and when we gave some to the staff to say thank you, one of them ended up in tears (happy ones) as they felt so blessed by our small gifts. They really are the kindest and most humble folk you will ever meet. They also have some automatic translation devices (like google translate) at reception, so when they have trouble understanding you, they simply pulled out those devices which helped speed up the conversations. SNOW: Overall - 5 out of 5 This hotel is one of the highest (if not, the highest) in its region so the snowfall is plentiful here. We visited in early February 2020 and prior to our arrival, the staff were keeping us updated, telling us how bad of a snow season they were having. We were shocked when we arrived to see SO MUCH SNOW, that we couldn't understand what a "bad snow season" they were talking about. For beginners and intermediate folk, you will fit right in here. The runs are wide, long, lots of gentle and smooth runs, a mini-park with some jumps and boxes and the mountain was pretty much empty for the most part (we were there during the week though). If you are looking for steep, fast, advanced or black runs, you might want to look elsewhere. There are many food options on the mountain, all of which is reasonably priced. The hot chocolates are awesome too! SUMMARY: Overall - 4 out of 5 Besides the lack of food options and poor taste at the hotel and the extortionate price tags that come with it, the hotel is great for families, couples or folks who like peace and quiet and want to learn or improve their skiing/boarding abilities. If you are wise and use the food options we mentioned above, you can actually have a really great time here without breaking the bank. If, however, you are an adrenalin junkie looking to "shred that Japow-pow" or looking to team up with the boys on a snow adventure of partying, bars and nightlife, look elsewhere as this is a remote, quiet town with a few small local restaurants, one set of traffic lights and a lot of expensive, slightly dated hotels with amazing snow, with mainly green and blue runs. Hakuba and Niseko will probably get you covered for that sort of holiday. Something to note: 1. The rental ski shop at the hotel can be very pricey. We had some friends who joined us this year, both who needed to rent all their snow gear (boards, boots, clothing etc). The rental shop wanted around AU$1400 for a 5-day ski rental hire for 2 people. The rental shop down at the mountain base was about half that price. 2. All of the TV channels are in Japanese, there are no English channels at all. The hotel does not offer any English TV channels at all. They do offer complimentary wireless, internet, but the connectivity is pretty bad in the rooms. Even trying to watch a show on Netflix somedays were unwatchable.