Hotel Hakuba Hifumi

My wife and I visited as part of a ski trip. Hifumi is a bit of a walk to the nearest ski lift but the ski bus if very close and runs more often than the timetable suggests. Our room (Sen) was huge and lovely. The en-suite onsen was a real luxury. Breakfast is excellent (both Japanese and European options). The real highlight was the service. The 2 young ladies who front a lot of the service are possibly the most helpful people I have ever met. They are superb, nothing is too much trouble.

Some background on this stay, we tried to book this ryokan 2 years in a row and when we finally got a booking, the pandemic hit. So we finally only made it 3 years after the first attempt to book. Due to this, sadly the anticipation to stay at this inn was a big let down. Some of the deluxe rooms with outdoor bath were advertised as being renewed and this led to an impression that all deluxe rooms with baths would be of similar standard. It was also my fault that I didn’t pay closer attention to the room we were assigned to and therefore when I saw the bath in the room we got, which was a round metallic tub with some questionable surfaces on the bottom I felt really let down, instead of a nice wooden bath that I was expecting. The main reason for staying in a ryokan is usually a Japanese style tatami room, Onsen facilities and amazing food. The tatami part of our room was small and the main part was western style with a very off-putting cloth covered sofa which I would not like to see what is actually beneath it. The rug was also old and not too clean. Honestly it was quite shocking that this room costs us over ¥50,000 per night for 2 adults and one child. Ryokans always charge by the number of people and in return breakfasts and dinners are provided. There was only breakfast and dinner was additionally charged which is the first time ever in 20 years of traveling in Japan. There was no reason to charge by per person for the room then. Staying 6 nights is the equivalent of an engineer’s monthly salary in Japan and this is simply exorbitant for the standard of the room with only breakfast included. One more thing is that the only shower in the room is also outside and there are open gaps in the window so it’s always freezing in the bath area and water in the tub gets cold in 10 mins. Not very relaxing either, this is simply a bad design. Onsen facilities are small with no outdoor space and the smell was overpowering due to lack of ventilation. The staff was friendly but service is a bit lacking, we didn’t even get offered any tea at all upon checking in. Foreigners may not always be welcomed in Japan but in a international tourist place like Hakuba I really wish that the Japanese would keep their famous hospitality standards or just not accept foreign guests if they do not wish to do so. It should not be different standards for Japanese and foreign guests. For future visitors who would like to have a deluxe room with a bath, I would recommend to avoid’Hina’ room unless you want to have a metallic tub.

We had a truly superb stay here in January. We stayed for 7 nights in the busy new year season for skiing and this place was wonderful. We didn’t have a private onsen in our room but it didn’t matter, the room was beautiful and comfortable and the private onsen available for booking was always available at a convenient time and was such a treat at the end of a long day skiing! The food is really excellent. Beautiful breakfasts every morning (we had both Japanese and Western style breakfasts, both delicious). We also had two dinners here and it was some of the best food we had in Hakuba! We were collected from the train station and dropped off on our day of check out at no extra cost. The location is perfect, 1 min from the bus to Happo One and 3 mins from the bus for all other ski fields. Special thanks to Yuko Beppu who was really wonderful, and who answered all our questions via email before we even arrived! Couldn’t recommend a stay here more highly, was a really special experience we will cherish for years to come!