[Hokkaido] Day 4 : First Time Skiing at Rusutsu

Besides known for its food, Hokkaido also known for their snow activities. In winter, every parts of Hokkaido will covered with very fluffy and powdery snow. This situation makes Hokkaido become the best place for skiing and snowboarding in the world. For this reason, I felt visiting Hokkaido is not complete without trying these sport activities. Despite my inexperienced, I was looking for the best place for skiing in Hokkaido, of course for the beginner. Some answers shown up. Since I only gonna had a daytrip for skiing, I chose the nearest place from Sapporo (where I stayed during this trip) with easy access. It's Rusutsu.

Rusutsu is a city which located just 2 hours away from Sapporo. There are 2 places in Rusutsu which famous for snow activities, Rusutsu Resort Hotel and The Westin Hotel. These hotels have adjacent location, and also connected. However, my destination was Rusutsu Resort Hotel because they have a snow park for children. We were visiting this place by taking a free shuttle from Sapporo (by bus), provided by Rusutsu Resort Hotel. Since they have limited seats and only one time departure, so you must make reservation by online in advance. Especially if you have large numbers of people on your group.

Mountain view while on the way to Rusutsu

Roadside Rest Area Boyo Nakayama

The bus departs from Sapporo at 8AM in the morning. During this 2 hours trip, we saw a very beautiful scenery of winter. In the middle of the trip, the bus made a quick stop at Roadside Rest Area Boyo Nakayama. At this place we could get out from the bus, and took pictures with snowy mountain as the background.

Arrived at Rusutsu Resort Hotel, we bought the lift ticket and also rent ski equipment immediately. Since we only have a limited time, we just bought 4 hours ticket and also rent the ski equipment for 5 hours. You can check the lift ticket price in here and rental price here. If you just want to play around with snow, enjoy the scenery, or just play with your children at Crayon Shinchan Kids Park, you don't need to rent any equipment.

Slide at Crayon Shinchan Kids Park

Beside those activities, you also can find other winter activities such as snow mobile, which available (with reservation) at The Westin Hotel. As I was saying, Rusutsu Resort Hotel and The Westin Hotel are connected. If you just want to looking around (without skiing / snowboarding), you can visit them both in 1 day. However since I was playing ski, I had no enought time to visit The Westin Hotel. Maybe another time I'll stay at one of this resort so I can explore more.

On the chair lift to going up

Breathtaking view from the top of mountain

The weather in Rusutsu was around -10 degrees celcius. But when I was there, it was a sunny day. This perfect weather made us didn't feel cold, at all. We really enjoyed our day trip to Rusutsu. Not just because of their outdoor activities, but also their indoor facilities. To be honest, this is 1 of many reasons why I chose Rusutsu instead Niseko (which is most popular for skiing). Beside the location which is close with Sapporo, a snow park for kids, they also have a shopping mall with some shops, restaurant, and indoor entertainment. So when the kids got bored and need a warmer place, we could take them to the shopping mall and play there.

The shuttle bus for going back to Sapporo only has 1 departure time, at 5PM. While waiting for the bus, we had a very late lunch at the restaurant inside the shopping mall. There are many restaurants inside, with different type of food. We chose a Japanese restaurant which serves Curry Rice with Tonkatsu at the Ground Floor (I forgot the name). Unlike other attraction places which usually serve a bad quality food with high price, the food was taste so good and also came with reasonably price. Perfect meal to ended our day in Rusutsu.

Overall, I just want to said that I didn't have any regret to chose Rusutsu as my first place for skiing. I could get anything I want in this place. Not just for me, but also for my children. They were so happy to play at the snow park where they could slide for unlimited time. The only regret was we only had a day trip, which gave us a limited time to explore this place. Well, if you ask me whether 1 day is enough to explore Rusutsu, I would say, "NO!". You need to stay at least 2 - 3 nights. Unless if you just want to strolling around without play any snow activities.