1. ski lesson: can enrol public lessons instead of private lessons as most coaches will speak simple English. Last time, my husband, my daughter (9) and me were in the same class. The class was small. Only three of us on the first day. and one more Japanese boy joined on the second morning. My son (5) joined the children class separately. There was a session just him and the coach and they took lift to ski down from the slopes. After two full days, we can turn and ski on runs with bumps. Basically, we learned to ski in Karuizawa. The following year we went to Naeba which has better snow but the coach didn't speak English and was not as experienced and patient as those in Karuizawa.
Of course, whether sking is fun or not somehow depends on the snow condition. Last time was great since we had real powder snow. However, Karuizawa doesn't have much snow fall sometimes and the snow may be disappointing.
2. Dining
There are very few restaurants opened after 7:00pm. Last time, we took a taxi to go out and found only KFC. Some traditional Japanese restaurants don't like kids. We took lunch in the ski resort as we had full day classes.
The cottage is good but no wifi and no ovens or microwaves. We had hot chocolate as late night snacks from starbucks.
There is a supermarket (a real and big one with many Japanese food) just a few bus stops away (15 mintues). I wish I found it on the first day so we could buy some nice fruit and snacks.
cottage is not ski in ski out as the path was too level to ski. The hotel cars will take you and all your gears to the cottage, free of charge. The driver will help you load and unload the gears. Don't worry.
We did learn ski at Niseko 2 years ago and powder snow was real GREAT!!! Planned ski at Niseko but eventually itinerary doesn't allow and so, ski at Karuizawa as we wanna shop at outlet as well....
were you shop at the nice supermarket named Matsuya? Haha...
I see. Then you won't be satisfied with the snow in Karuizawa unless you are very lucky to have heavy snow during your trip. You may consider going to Echigo Yuzawa which is only a few stops away. This year, we went there and the onsen hotel was very nice. We saw snow flakes falling down when bathing. There are also a lot of restaurants along the onsen street which is just next to the JR station. Since we bought JR pass, we went to Karuizawa purely for shopping and it's very convenient.
原帖由 fishyvette 於 09-12-16 01:17 發表
thanks Blip.. very informative
We did learn ski at Niseko 2 years ago and powder snow was real GREAT!!! Planned ski at Niseko but eventually itinerary doesn't allow and so, ski at Karuizawa as we wan ...