We stayed for 2 weeks at the hotel. Our room was comfortable and larger than I expected. The staff were friendly with great English. The hotel offers shuttles to the skiing and if you can coordinate with these it works well. You can walk / ski to and from lifts too if you are feeling energetic.
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Date of stay: January 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Response from Joanie C, Owner at Wadano Forest Hotel & Apartments
Responded 19 Jan 2018
Jon, thank you for your review and your nice comments. It was a pleasure to meet you.
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Just returned from 2 weeks skiing at Hakuba where we stayed at the Wadano Forest Hotel. The hotel is fantastic and has everything you need to make your stay as enjoyable as possible. Manager Josh (a San Franciscan who has lived in Hakuba for I think he said 15 years), is very knowledgeable about everything there is to know about Hakuba. Nothing is too much trouble for Josh and his staff (especially Jake, an Aussie, and Yuseke, a Japanese local who speaks very good English so communication is not an issue at all). They all go out of their way to ensure the guests' stay here is as smooth and enjoyable as possible, with lots of helpful suggestions and just trying to be as accommodating as possible.
The hotel itself has everything you could possibly want. The rooms are quite large by Japanese standards, and the beds and pillows are new and super comfy (my husband and I had a king size!, and a lovely view out to the snowy forest). The rooms have a seperate Japanese toilet, and a shower room with a small bath. There is a seperate male and female onsen and vending machines in the foyer selling beer and drinks. And a microwave for communal use for those take home dinners. There is also a laundry with washing machine/dryer which is free to use, you just need to buy the detergent from reception for 100 yen a load. A drying room for ski gear and there is even a ski rental pickup service from the hotel at the end of your stay. The heating in the rooms is good and very efficient and can be controlled individually. The wifi is excellent and free, and a TV showing Japanese channels.
The position of WFH is a little more out of the way, being up the hill in a very pretty part of Wadano, but still walking distance to many restaurants and bars. The advantage of being nearly at the end of the Wadano road and only 50m down the hill from High Mountain bus stop, being the first stop for Hakuba 47 and Goryu, you are always guaranteed a seat. Alternatively, if you want to ski Happo-One the hotel is about a 400m walk uphill from Sakka lift. It's very doable, but a bit of a killer at the end of a long days' skiing. It just means you look forward to that onsen so much more! Josh and staff will try to accommodate where possible, the wants and needs of all the guests by running them to restaurants, bus terminals, ski lifts and ski rental shops. If there is a car and driver available, they will take you wherever you want to go.
The breakfast is served in a building next door, so the shoes on, shoes off thing is a bit tedious at first, but you soon get used to it, and important to respect the local customs. Bring shoes that slip on! The brekky is western style, and very substantial. I happened to mention to Josh the lack of fresh fruit and veg in general in Hakuba restaurants, and no problem, he introduced salad at breakfast to help alleviate this. Josh is very accommodating to any reasonable requests. We enjoyed many different and delicious dining experiences thanks to Josh's very helpful suggestions. He is lots of fun, and after two weeks we felt we had made a firm friend, as the hotel is very personable and friendly.
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Date of stay: January 2017Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
We (family of 4) stayed at Wadano Forest Hotel for 7 nights in mid January 2018. The room was very comfortable and the facilities good (including boot room/drying room, onsen, bar, drink vending machine, washing machine/dryer). The location is good - short walk or walk/ski to the Saka lift and one end of Happy One. We mostly skied at Happo One which was good but did one day at Tsugaike Kogen (shuttle bus from Saka 1 lift stop) which we also liked - good easily accessible terrain park. There are a number of nearby restaurants/pubs that you can walk to. It was very quiet a night. The team at Wadano including Becky, Tom and Yusake were really welcoming and helpful and happy to help with lifts to nearby lifts, restaurants, tours etc (we did a snow monkey tour which was really good). Our 2 boys loved having snowball fights and building snowmen in the quite extensive hotel grounds after a long day's snowboarding - not sure where they get the energy! The outlook from our room on level 2 was very pretty. Breakfast was quite good - for some reason the scrambled eggs were mostly cold, but otherwise a good start for the day.
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Date of stay: January 2018Trip type: Travelled with family
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Response from Becky T, Manager at Wadano Forest Hotel & Apartments
Responded 29 Jan 2018
Dear Andybw68, Thank you for your review and kind words, we really appreciate that! We are very pleased that we can be of service to you and family and that you all had a great time on the slopes and in our hotel. We have also taken onboard your feedback, as always we will continue to strife to improve and deliver good service and great experience for all our guests. We look forward to having you and family back to us again!
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After going to Hokkaido a few times, our family decided to try Hakuba in Nagano, of Winter Olympics' fame.
By recommendation we used Wadano Forest Hotel. Which turned out to offer good value , especially in comparison to the now popular northern destinations .
Snow was ample during our 5 nights' stay and there were plenty of great food choices, from the region's famous soba (try: Soba Jin) to Yakitori to private dining .
The hotel is about 5 storeys and offers Triple rooms, useful for families like ours. The room comes with both bath & shower， and a separate WC room. (Public baths/ Onsens are on-site too for a nice soak after a long day of skiing) Our room was warm & clean. The hotel is aptly named after the pretty forest view that can be seen from many of the rooms. The undemanding room rate includes a simple and homey western breakfast that will fill the tummy before a day at the slopes.
The walk to the nearest chair lift (Sekka) is about 6 to 8 minutes and can become ski in/ ski out to proficient skiers, our teenage kids left the hotel and came back to the hotel on their skis. The hotel team, made up of native English speakers and good English speakers, is professional, very courteous as well as helpful. They will pick up from the train/ bus on arrival day, or arrange lift passes, or book restaurants (even dropping you off there but please be mindful that they do have many guests to assist and therefore returns are on own ), and send you to the train/ bus at departure . I cannot speak more highly of this team that includes Josh, Yosuke & Saori, some of the names I can remember . The pre-arrival assistance is also great as the hotel is under the care of the experienced HHG, whos answered all that I wanted to know about the hotel/ town and entertained my last-minute request for a taxi for the hour-long ride from Nagano to Hakuba.
Coupled with ski rental companies who come to the hotel to pick us up for fitting and later picked up the gear from the hotel at finish, the trip was made extremely smooth.
Hakuba as a town may appear more basic than say Niseko. However, it is very authentically Japanese and therefore interesting to travellers. It is nestled in a beautiful mountain range (Three Peaks) offering rather glorious views, it is also accessible to world famous attractions such as the Snow Monkies and world famous history towns such as Matsumoto for those looking to do more than skiing .
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Date of stay: January 2017Trip type: Travelled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
Great place! I left the family behind for a solo trip away for a weeks skiing. I arrived at midnight, friendly note and key left at front desk. My room was very clean and comfortable and looked out over the peaceful forest. The room information folder was really detailed and seriously helpful! The ski and boot room is well located next to the front door. Breakfast included hot and cold options. Josh and staff really helpful including drop offs to various locations in the Happo-One and Hukuba, restaurant bookings, and generally very knowledgeable and friendly. Loved the onsen looking out on the forest. Highly recommend!
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Date of stay: January 2017Trip type: Travelled solo
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This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.
