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Reviews of Villa Alpen

3 out of 5
Villa Alpen
7148 Hirao, Yamanouchi-cho, Sun Valley, Shiga Plateau, Yamanouchi, Nagano-ken

Reviews

9.2

Wonderful

Rating 10 - Excellent. 19 out of 30 reviews" "
Rating 8 - Good. 8 out of 30 reviews" "
Rating 6 - Okay. 3 out of 30 reviews" "
Rating 4 - Poor. 0 out of 30 reviews" "
Rating 2 - Terrible. 0 out of 30 reviews" "

8.6/10

Cleanliness

9.6/10

Staff & service

8.8/10

Amenities

7.6/10

Property conditions & facilities

9.4/10

Eco-friendliness

Reviews

10/10 Excellent

Tom

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
The family that runs Villa Alpen is wonderful and make you feel right at home. The onsen was amazing and perfect for post-powder day rehab of the muscles! It is a simple, older property (as many are throughout the region) but very well kept. Like a lot of Shiga Kogen villages, there is no (or limited) resaurant options, especially for dinner Thus recommend going with with hotel provided breakfast and lunch. If you plan to use shuttle service between villages, pay close attention to the schedule as last one runs around 6:30pm (depending where you are) and there are no taxis. The skiing was top notch at Yakebitai and Osokogen. Helped that they got a ton of snow when i arrived ; ) Was very hard to leave and miss another poweder day after 1 foot fell the morning I left. : ( Highly recommend staying a few days minimum and explore all the ski areas.
Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2024
Response from Captain on 18 Mar 2024
Thank you for posting the words that make us very happy.also, we have stay with 2 meals. We look forward to your next stay..

10/10 Excellent

Dominic

Stayed 2 nights in Mar 2023

10/10 Excellent

Jonathan

Travelled with family and small children
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Staff was great and ver accommodating. Ski rentals were found at hotel facility.
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2023
Response from Captain on 16 Feb 2023
Thank you very much! such words from our customers encourage us and make us feel happy

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Warm retreat in sun valley shiga kogen
Well worn but comfortable lodge. Some may find facility not modern but it actually has its own atmosphere which is centred around the warmth of the family and staff that run villa alpen.

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Location
We stayed in a family room for 5 nights, the room is ok need to update. Great location for skiing, plenty snow and we hired our ski gears at the Alpen, professionally fitted, very friendly staff & helpful.

6/10 Okay

PearlF, Singapore

Liked: Staff & service
Close to great ski slopes
It's a family owned hotel so service is very personalised and friendly. They helped us to arrange for taxi pick-up from Narita airport to ski lodge, gave us guidance on bus schedules and monkey park operating hours etc. Real ski-in/ski-out resort and we managed to get english speaking ski-instructors. Breakfast spread is simple but adequate and dinner is good. We stayed in the family room so it was basic but comfortable considering we had to sleep on futons. The room had great view of the ski slopes and surrounding mountains. Only wish that the rooms had internet connection. Wi-fi connection in the public area was poor.

10/10 Excellent

Shaun, Australia

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Close to lifts
Was an excellent location to lifts and bus stops staff where very helpful and friendly and the Captain is a really good host!

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Great Hotel
Great hotel. Family Atmosphere. Not flash or fancy but very servicable. Staff were fantastic! Very friendly and helpful. Hotel in great location right next to lift. Quiet location ideal for families.

8/10 Good

Michael

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service
I loved the small village that Villa Alpen was in! The service was excellent and the staff were very helpful and friendly and for an old hotel/lodge it was in pretty good shape. I was in a room with no shower which I can't recall being made aware of at the time of booking, but that wasn't a big deal. I pretty much used it as an overnight stay to visit the snow monkeys but wouldn't hesitate in going back for a ski trip!

10/10 Excellent

Yoko

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
落ち着いた癒される宿です
到着から出発まで、宿の方の温かいおもてなしの気持ちが伝わり、ゆったりと落ち着いて過ごせました。建物は古いですが、その古さが落ち着きあり癒される素敵な空間になってます。綺麗に清掃されてあり清潔です。 料理も手作りで程よく美味しくいただきました。
Stayed 1 night in Oct 2023

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Highly recommended
We stayed for 5 nights and we ski out using the sun valley chairlift just outside the hotel. Captain, Ken and the staff are very friendly and willing to help. The food is great and there is a very relaxing bar area as well.
Stayed 5 nights in Mar 2023

10/10 Excellent

SHINTARO, Palo Alto

Liked: Staff & service, amenities
Stayed 2 nights in Feb 2022

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with group
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Quel accueil ! Un hôtel familial, vous serez reçus comme des rois par le “Captain”, sa famille et son staff ... Toujours prêts à vous rendre service, l’équipe vous fera vous sentir comme à la maison. La situation aux pieds des pistes et à côté des arrêts de bus est idéal. ありがとう (ございます)
Stayed 9 nights in Feb 2020

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Travelled with family
Liked: Staff & service
Stayed 4 nights in Jan 2020

10/10 Excellent

Johnny

Travelled with family
Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Out of the extraordinary
One of the most family-kind-of experiences! fantastic service, friendly staff, great food, and great facilities - only 50 meter to the ski lift
Stayed 4 nights in Dec 2019

10/10 Excellent

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, amenities, property conditions & facilities
Stayed 3 nights in Feb 2019

10/10 Excellent

Fitty, Hong Kong

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
just beside Sun Valley Chair Lift
Very warm and tidy hotel, Captain, Ken and the family members are all very nice and they are all very good ski instructors, very warm and good to stay.
Stayed 6 nights in Jan 2018

8/10 Good

fitty, Hong Kong

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, room comfort
The hotel just beside sun valley chair lift
We have a very good time while staying at this hotel, this is a family run hotel and Captain and Ken are both ski expert. They just like our friends and family and we have a very good time here. Hotel room not new but very clean and the breadfast and dinner are good too.
Stayed 6 nights in Jan 2018

8/10 Good

Ripman , Hong Kong

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
A recommendable hotel
Villa Alpen is located in Sun Valley area, the most West-end of the Shiga Kogen skiing fields, connected to other fields by charge-free shuttle busses. There are a number of selling points for Villa Alpen, 1)it is a small but cosy place, a family running hotel. Captain Nobody Okazawa sang, the owner, his wife and son, Ken, are all very kind and helpful person. You will feel very comfortable with them. 2) you can rent any skiing or snow boarding equipment from the hotel but without caring for rental and storage troubles. 3) about 50 meters to a Monkey Swing from the hotel, very convenient to get start a fun. 4) even the room site is not space as expected but a tatami area is very suitable for a family living. 5)with a build-in onsen(hot spring), very convenient and comfortable for a recovery day-activity-after. 6)and, we would like to say many thanks to Ken for him always try to help us in traffic arrangements and fields instructions. Totally, a very good memory to us when a week vacation there.
Stayed 6 nights in Dec 2017

10/10 Excellent

Hanne Lodberg, Danmark

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service, property conditions & facilities, room comfort
Helt fantastisk service
Hotelservice topkvalitet. Ejeren også kaldet Captain er hel utrolig hjælpsom, han gør alt for, at sine gæster føler sig godt tilpas. Taler engelsk og er behjælpelig med ture i området. Vi følte os meget velkommen. Vi var ikke kommet for at stå på ski. Vi lejede ski sko og gik skønne ture og besøgte abe parken. Ellers Suveræn ski sport sted. Herlig Onsen på hotellet, hyggelig bar og dejlig mad. At hotellet var lidt slidt havde kun sin charme, alt det andet får top karakter.

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort

8/10 Good

Verified traveller

Liked: Cleanliness, staff & service

6/10 Okay

Verified traveller

Liked: Staff & service
Disliked: Cleanliness, property conditions & facilities, room comfort