Reviews
Joshua Tan
The welcome drinks of apple juice and cider are delicious. Especially the cider, different from most Japanese ciders which are just apple juice soda.
There’s a garden in-house, though with so many nature trails and a free shuttle bus to get around, why ever walk the garden?
The onsen is average, modern new and clean. The outdoor bath has an odd angle view of a rushing river.
The food was really good with the apple themed dishes.
Cindy Tu
Very beautiful hotel and great ambience. Would definitely return. The fireplace area with the windows was a great place to relax during the day. The onsen facilities were clean and I enjoyed the outdoor one. The rooms were clean and spacious. Staff and food was great too.
Kay
Location: middle of nowhere which is great for a holiday but not very convenient for transport. The hotel has a shuttle service for free but limited spaces and only 1 bus from each location each day.
This hotel is definitely not as good as kai and hoshinoya hotels (as you could've guessed from the lower price) so don't expect the service to be very personalised or someone carrying your lugagge to your room for you etc. Besides that, everything was pretty decent.
The room we had was very big and we noticed that only our room had a name on the room plate. Other rooms didn't have a name, only the number. Rooms were nice and large with enough space for suitcases etc. The shower was nice (not old and dirty), and the room has shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, face wash, face lotion, face cream, etc. Toothbrush, cotton buds, and shaver can be obtained from the amneties bit by the lifts on the 2nd floor. Japanese lounge wear is also provided in the rooms (for bigger or smaller sizes, you grab them by the amneties area), and I have to say, the lounge wear were very.... unflattering, lol. It made me look like I worked at the hotel. There are no USB sockets, so make sure to bring a japan charger, or you can try asking the hotel. No water bottles provided, only a jug to refil either at the taps in your room or by the lifts on certain floors.
Breakfast and dinner buffet: I really liked the apple theme dinner buffet: 3 types of apple juice and the apple pie+soft serve ice cream. Food was decent, not a very wide variety, but its enough, and they also have a sashimi/seafood rice area for sashimi lovers. Freshly sliced apples are available as part of the buffet. Breakfast was similar, decent, but not the best I've had.
The hotel has 1 onsen (1 for men and 1 for women), and it was ok. I enjoyed the outdoor onsen as you could see the ice/snow around you but feel warm whilst soaking in the onsen.
Free and paid activities are available, but I recommend pre-book them. When you arrive, you should go and sign a consent form for the activities so you save the hassle later on and to not cause any inconvenience. I highly recommend booking the free bus tour (45-60 mins) for the morning.
The only complaint I had with the rooms was the number of bugs. Over the period of like 18 hours, I found like 6 bugs in the room. We never opened the windows either. The bugs were around the size of a 100 yen coin and were like a beatle. They just kept appearing out of nowhere.
The hotel also offered massages so we booked one as it was very cheap. We booked a 60-minute massage for me and my boyfriend, and I have to say... it was 1 of the most painful massages I've ever had in my life. I could tell this was a proper massage on acu points, and I'm probably just very unhealthy, which was why it hurt too much. My boyfriend said only parts of his body hurt, and the rest was fine.
During check-in hours (2-6pm i believe), they had welcome drinks in the lobby by the check-in desk. They had alcohol and some hot and cold apple juice.
Douglas Aberdeen
Nestled along the Oirase river, it's on the edge of a national park famous for its moss and the Oirase gorge. It's much larger than we thought, it must be about 200 rooms. There were obviously some large bus tours going through, mostly Chinese tourists. That makes it feel a bit busy and impersonal at times. The Onsen was cavernous, which was good since it is busy after dinner. The outside bath was cool and we enjoyed sitting in it as the snow came down. The artificial ice wall was also interesting.
Try and get a room facing the river, otherwise the car park view isn't inspiring. I think we'd only go back with a river view.
The buffet dinner and breakfast were a great spread, mostly japanese options (lots of apple dishes of course). We weren't bored even after 3 nights. There's also a French restaurant but we couldn't get in any night, so book ahead for that one. It also seemed to have a steep additional fee.
Watching the snow from the large lounge area with a fire place and huge windows was cosy, and they had free alcoholic beverages and apple juice every day 3pm to 6pm.
There are many winter activities, but again we hadn't booked in advance and missed out on most of them. We did the moss ball making which was nice, and you get to take them home.
The Oirase Onsen ski slope is right around the corner, and Hakkodate mountain slope is 45 minutes away. We didn't ski though.
We drove and the main roads were open even in winter. Parking free. Make sure you have snow tires though! It could get hairy if there's been a recent dump.
Will Oaks
Zero hospitality presented by the resort, its management and staff. An utter disgrace to the Japanese hospitality industry. If you would like to waste your money on a lousy resort experience, you can book a stay at this place. Probably they paid big money to have a well done official website, but its information are all deception. If it’s allowed on Google reviews, this place actually deserves zero stars.