Nozawa Onsen Nozawa Grand Hotel

With most other accommodation sold out by August the year before, this hotel checked all my boxes except for one drawback being on the tallest spot in town- you have to walk a bit downhill and then up again to access the Hikage ski area( 25 mins walk including using the Yu Road). Do get the full board option. Unless you like the buzz of hanging around noisy bars and eateries apres ski, not to mention the challenge of getting a reservation at your choice of eatery - full board fixes it. You get nightly 8 course kaiseki fine dining menus- felt spoiled! Onsen baths were good, and staff friendly. Tip: if coming from Iiysma railway station, do NOT get, as most people do- the 600 yen direct snow shuttle bus. That one stops at the Chuo bus terminal . Instead go to bus stop number 2 and catch the #9 nagaden local bus that stops at several Stops before ending at the hotel itself. The bus turns around for its return leg right there

I took my children and grandchildren to this nostalgic hot spring inn that I used to visit many times for skiing in my student days, and it still has the same appearance as it did back then, the open-air bath is still there, and we thoroughly enjoyed the view from the high ground. The inn showed signs of age in many places, and there were not many young staff members, so my children said that since it is run by Nagano Electric Railway, they could do more to improve it, but for us older people it was a comfortable inn where we could relax. We had a leisurely dinner of country-style cuisine in the spacious dining area. It was just the right walking distance from the inn to the source of Ogama hot springs, about 10 minutes, and there were souvenir shops along the way, so I think the location was great.

This was suggested to us by our travel agent as the better place to stay in Nozawa. It was OK and comfortable enough. We were sold the room with a private onsen - which was smaller than our bath at home. It is just big enough for one person. However, the larger guest onsen (seperate men and women) and the public onsen in the hotel offer a much better experience. The buffet breakfast is standard fare. The hotel is a short walk from anywhere in town. For anyone with mobility issues Nozawa will present difficulties.