Kiroro & Rusutsu, Japan - Jan 2025

Kiroro Club Med

Opened in 2023, Kiroro Club Med is the newest Club Med Resort in Hokkido. During Chinese New Year, the hotel has up to 800 guests. It typically has 200-300. But they do a great job with fast and efficient service despite the number of guests. We spent a week there with our two children. We had some friends from Beijing stay at the hotel next door (I think its a Vale property?)

Pros:

• Great if you have very young children you can put into their group lessons

• Great for a short trip since everything is inclusive, esp. when its so difficult to book reservations in other spots in Hokkaido

• Service is great - they provide assistance in practically anything you need

Cons:

• For the price, you arent getting a very big/nice room, nor are you getting private instruction. For the same price, I could get ski in/out, nicer room, and private instructor. The only thing missing in the all inclusive food/drink.

• Cannot choose your flight option. 6AM flight is not ideal.

• The bus transfer is fine, but again, for the price tag you could get a private car and it would still be cheaper than Club Med.

• Ski in/out isnt ideal

As for Kiroro resort itself, here is my take:

Pros:

• Tremendous amount of snow! Waist deep powder came down the week I was there

• Efficient lift system, lines were manageble

Cons:

• All the official gates for in-bounds off-piste were technically closed. Not sure why they did that. Some people told us its fine to duck the rope, but we were told by ski patrol to come out once and we were just in side country.

• The trees are very tight in places, unlike Rusutu which is more accessible and playful throughout the resort.

I would love to go back and have a guide show us where all the best lines are. We also did not have a chance to explore Otaru. It would be fun to stay in Otaru to have dinner and explore the city for a day, and commute to Kiroro for the skiing, as they are only about 30-40 minutes away.

Rusutsu Vale

The resort is split into East and West, connected by a gondola. East is where all of the accommodations are. West side is much larger in terms of skiable terrain, but both sides offer a variety of fun tree runs and powder stashes.

Lets start with a review of the Vale Hotel.

Pros:

• Great rooms at a fair price point of what you expect for accomodation of this type

• Ski in/out works, albeit it isnt the best (see below)

• Connected via indoor walkway to the Rusutsu Resort, which has various amenities (convenience stores, restaurants, etc)

Cons:

• There is only one cafe that serves breakfast. The sandwiches are not hot or freshly made, and the only other option is to walk 10 minutes to the restaurants in the Rusutsu Resort, which is not convenient.

• This is more of a issue for Rusutsu overall, but there is a severe lack of restaurants to eat out at. The concierge at the hotel meant well, but there was little he could do to help us with food options.

• Front desk does not open until 7AM which is odd for a hotel.

• They only clean the rooms every other day.

As for Rusutsu, it is definitely worth coming to ski. The tree skiing is great and very accessible. The mountain is very chill about it as well. And it snowed like crazy during the week we were there!

Perhaps 3-4 days is perfect, where you won't get too tired for the lack of restaurants and will have a chance to ski most of the resort.

For expert+ skiiers, there is heliskiing and backcountry skiing that looks absolutely amazing. Here's some skiiers hiking up. This is taken from the top of the West Mountain.