Urabandai Lake Resort

Comentarios destacados

• jbreynolds

  14 abril 2018
  Excellent hotel, service and experience

  On a recent ski and cultural experience in Aizu, my father and I stayed at the Urabandai Lake Resort for five nights. Transferred from Tokyo Station (Kajibashi Parking Lot) to hotel via Aizu coach. Warmly greeted upon arrival at the hotel; several staff members spoke good English. The room was very large by Japanese standards and both clean and functional. Amenities were exceptional and housekeeping was outstanding. Hotel features a large indoor onsen and spectaclar our door onsen; very sothing after a day on the ski slopes. At the time of our visit only one restaurant was open offering a buffet BF and Dinner. Although very nice the buffet dinner was certainly expensive and catered to a captured market. Both the bar and and cafe offered a small selection of meals/snacks during opening hours as an alternative. Several locals recommended a local restaurant called Mori Mori; approx. a 15 min drive by car/taxi. A impressive Gift Shop is available on the ground floor offering an expansive selection of gifts and souvenirs. Ski Hire is available on ground floor; lockers also available.

  

• que_cod

  05 octubre 2018
  4 stars, japanese style

  I stay here 2 night with my friends and it was a 4 stars hotel. Rooms are big and they look like New. Very clean, an impresii e big hotel, with a lot of carpet on the ground. The wellnes part is very nice, one part inside, another outside, infinite pool heated, with forest and lake view în the morning.

  

• 794alexandruv

  05 octubre 2018
  Very nice hotel sorounded by incredible lakes, forests and mountains

  The hotel is a classic 4 star. Staff very friendly, big room, spa is very good. All in one a very good choice while close to Bandai mountain. Cane here in October 18 which has an incredible colours of forest and lakes.

  

• Rein B

  19 enero 2019
  Beware of the SPA TAX

  Beware of the SPA TAX... STAFF: The staff are super friendly (except for the manager who trolls up and down the reception area like a hero and not giving any #%&?s!, especially when you need his assistance). If you get the opportunity to deal with the receptionist who is originally from Nepal, youre in for a real treat. He was so humble, genuine and always helpful! FOOD: The hotel has a few places that offer food. The first is a cafe situated on the ground level. They mostly serve cakes and coffee. Its ok, but be warned about ordering coffees Y600 as ours were burnt (took one sip and threw it away). Also on the ground floor is their main restaurant which can seat 100 people easily. Here, they offer buffets breakfasts and buffet dinners. Breakfast is between 07:00 - 09:00 each morning. We are unsure about the cost for breakfast each day (as this was already included in our travel agent deal), but for breakfast, they serve lots of Japanese infused foods, (noodles, soups, Japanese porridge etc) and they also have some local westernised foods too (toast, bacon, sausage, coco pops etc). Their butter comes in these little peel back tubs and are like a soft cream, so tasty! For dinner, you must make a reservation at reception, although they are pretty lenient with what time you need make the reservation by. We simply rocked up to the front desk during one dinner service, explained that we would like to have dinner at their buffet restaurant. They take down your room number and give you a piece of paper that you hand to the clerk at the buffet entrance. He will give you a seat number and show you to your table. Dinner is served between 18:00 - 20:00. Dinner costs Y5,000 per person, and that excludes anything from the bar (its a buffet so you can eat as much as you like though). They do offer a deal for beverages, but we opted out of that and just stuck to water and soft drinks. The buffet is pretty diverse and you can get everything from fresh sashimi and deep fried tempura right through to good old steak and veggies (try the cheese gravy, its liquid heaven!). The restaurant also has a large selection of fruits and small desserts as well as two of their very own soft-serve ice cream machines where you can self serve and forever fill up on your sugar fix! There is a gift shop (located adjacent to reception on the ground floor). Its pretty big and offers lots of authentic Japanese foods, snacks and sweets. Everything is well displayed visually, which is easy to make out (even if you dont speak Japanese) and they even have a few of their traditional snacks and biscuits available for free that you can sample at the counter. I am not sure of their operating hours but they were always open when we walked through the reception area at different hours of the day. Their is a sports bar up on level 3 known as Playsport. It has a small menu but there, along with all the pool tables, simulated golf and darts, you can order spaghetti, pizza or a dish that has a variety of sausages. We found this food to be very average/plain but is available from 16:30 - 23:00, so plenty of time to get a late bite to eat if needed. There is a restaurant situated on the top floor (level 5) called Waraku. Its a Japanese styled restaurant but also serves a curry and rice dish during lunch (11:30 - 14:30). As for dinner, you will need to make a reservation (at reception) which needs to be made before 2pm on the day of your booking as they have set course menus. We found this out the hard way that their dinners were by reservation only, when we dressed up one evening, walked into the restaurant only to be turned away because we didnt have a reservation. Looking around, the restaurant was almost bare so to question their methods, I even offered to pay for the set menu that evening for two people right there and then and we were still turned away as we had not made a reservation at reception, before 2pm that day. It baffles me how business would turn away customers like that (especially guests staying in the hotel) as they could seat about 50 people there and there were only 7 people in the whole restaurant. Their meal courses range between Y8,000-Y10,000 per person however, if you want to eat there, be sure to make a reservation at the reception desk on the ground floor before 2pm that day. We spoke to the staff who told us about an Italian restaurant that was quite good, about 10mins drive down the road. Since we are foreigners and limited to only the hotel WiFi, they offered to make a reservation for us at this restaurant, and even organise a taxi to and from the Italian restaurant. We took them up on their offer and we hopped into the taxi and drove off. We arrived at the restaurant only to find that it was closed (and apparently had been closed all week!), so the taxi driver made suggestions that we head back to the hotel. On our way back, feeling disappointed that we were not eating out that night, we asked the taxi driver to stop at a seven eleven convenient store so we could buy some foods. Just so you know, they have 7/11s everywhere and these stores are like gold in Japan! They are not some run down, cheap shop where you buy slurpees and cigarettes, they are little delicatessens filled with really tasty, well packaged foods at really affordable prices. After paying almost Y3,600 for our taxi, walking back into reception, the staff were gobsmacked that we were back so soon. When we explained that the restaurant was closed, they apologized..... but thats all they did. When we questioned them if they actually made a restaurant booking for us, we sort of went around in circles for a bit due to a language barrier, so we lost about AU$40 money on that one. Lastly for food, there are a few vending machines around the hotel. Vending machines are huge in Japan and hold both hot and cold drinks and even some ready to eat meals. The hotel is no different and has a few machines to choose from. They are all cash based and are available 24/7. COMMUNICATION: Youre not just in Japan, but youre in the middle of nowhere Japan. While is it great to be in the heart of true localism (we were here for the beautiful, remote snow fields), if you speak anything other than Japanese, youre going to have a bit of a hard time understanding whats going on in and around the hotel. The hotel has so many laminated cards postered all around the hotel (on the walls, in the lifts, along the corridors), with arrows pointing to attractions/events with price tags on them (it a bit cheap and tacky really), but all the writing on these cards are all in Japanese. Our travel agent told us that this area of Japan is trying to attract more western folk to the area although almost nothing is labelled in English (our language) at the hotel. There are like two staff members in the whole hotel, who can just barely cover a few basic words in English, so our only alternative was to pull out Google Translate every time we had questions. This worked, but its not great because when the staff try to respond to you, if your question does not have a yes or no answer, you will struggle a little bit to get a decent response. This can also be time consuming when you are trying to ask about bus routes and pick up locations and travel times to and from ski resorts etc, so prepare yourself for a lot of back and forth texting. The positive is that the staff are very patient and willing to help you (in true Japanese style) as best that they can and with a smile on their face. ONSEN: Never being to Japan before, and leading up to our trip, we heard a lot about these indoor/outdoor onsens, which is like a traditional Japanese hot spring pool where you can relax and unwind, and is supposed to be good for the body muscles. We were excited to try this and luckily for us, this hotel has four of them, two indoor ones and two outdoor ones. The large ones (indoors) are about the size of two/three massive swimming pools joined together and the outdoor (smaller) ones are about the size of a large outdoor, residential pool. They are all separated (men only onsen and women only onsen). So, if you are straight and looking to have a romantic onsen with your partner, you wont find that here. While all of these onsen are free for guests, what we didnt know until checking out is that all guests must pay whats known as a Spa Tax, Y150 per person for each day of their stay because the hotel has these onsen onsight. When we questioned this cost upon check out, the staff explained to us that this is a government fee that is added onto any hotel that has an onsen, and that each customer that stays at a hotel which has an Onsen, must pay this daily rate whether they use the onsen or not. We were there for a week and our travel agent (knowing that we are first timers to Japan) nor the hotel staff ever thought to mention this to us until check out day. Having it sprung upon us as checkout, we disputed this with the hotel and after almost 25 minutes of back and forth (no thanks to the manager as he was head down pretending there was not a dispute happening and offered no assistance), we finally walked away with a positive resolution. Its not the amount that we were disputing (which was about Y1,500), but the fact that we were unaware of such charge, and no one ever thought to mention this to us. This seemed very unfair to throw in extra, unknown fees upon checking out. So, for those of you that have read this far, be aware that if you stay at this hotel, there is a government surcharge called SPA TAX that all hotels have to add onto the bill for having onsen on their location. It usually costs Y150 per person, per day so be sure to take this into account (or at least ask at reception) so you dont get hit with this unexpected surprise upon checkout! SNOW/SKI: There are a few ski mountains around the area. There are some buses which will pick you up right outside the front door of the hotel and drive you to the entrance of the ski resort in the morning, and then will and drop you back off at the hotel in the afternoon. Some buses are free and some cost money. There are over 22 mountains/resorts available in the area so it might be best to do your research before hand. Plan ahead as when you email the hotel for any questions about this, they can take up to 5 days to reply, and most replies are pretty poor due to the language barrier. We visited a few different resorts during our stay and our recommendation is to go to GrandDeco Resort. The reception can give you free bus tickets to travel there, the bus picks up and drops off right outside the hotel front door and the mountain has some great runs both for snowboarders and skiers of all levels. Its about a 30 minute ride from the hotel and the bus travels back and forth from there a few times per day. There is a time table of this on a laminated card, situated at the desk at reception. If youre looking for longer runs, more people, a busier mountain and more variety, then Alts Bandai ski resort is our next suggestion. Its about an hour and ten minutes away from the hotel. You will need to pay for the bus (between Y500 - Y1,000) and it also picks up and drops off right outside the hotel front door. If you need any gear hire, I would suggest renting gear at each mountain that you choose to go to. The quality of the gear is way better than the rental shop at the hotel (dont waste your time there) and we found most resorts offer cheaper rental than what the hotel can offer. SUMMARY: The staff are really polite, respectful and helpful but all speak very little English (they really need to hire at least one fluent English speaking person if they want more westerners to visit here). The food options are plentiful but the food is average and if youre there for a week or more, you may become tired of eating the same foods everyday. Use the 7/11 as an added option to stock up on alternate foods. The hotel amenities are rather expensive so be sure to look elsewhere before getting sucked into a massage or a night in of pool, darts and golf! My partner got a 1 hour aroma massage (Y11,000) and I opted for a 30 mins relaxation massage (Y6,000) and costing us almost AU$200, it was not that great to be honest. We are in the heart of Tokyo right now and each went for a 1 hour gentle massage earlier today and it was amazing, and cost Y2,400 each (AU$30 each). The rooms are of an older style but do the basics and have good heating. Their pillows however, are super hard, and were pretty uncomfortable to sleep on. We did ask for softer pillows but they had none (or didnt understand our question). Their onsen is a nice experience but be aware that you will be charged about Y150 per person in your party for each day of their stay here. The internet is good in your room and is pretty quick. Bear in mind that you will be in a foreign country, and all the tv channels are in Japanese. The TVs are not smart TVs so they have no Netflix options, so be sure to bring your own iPads/iPhones with Netflix already loaded on them. As a first time here, we were expecting a lot more from what they call a 4 star hotel. We have marked this down as an interesting experience and will probably look elsewhere the next time we want to visit Japans snowy mountains.

  

• elisesmu

  03 marzo 2019
  Money Stolen from The Room

  Quite a lot of money stolen from the room and the hotel would not do anything about it without the police (which is understandable), but they only operate during the day (very much doubt that, it's Police after all), so on top of missing money I would have had to miss a full day of skiing. Some other people had some items taken from their rooms as well