Sahoro Resort Japan
Sahoro Resort in Hokkaido Japan is a destination resort that provides two distinct experiences depending on your choice of hotel. Sahoro Japan features the Club Med Sahoro that is very international and popular with families due to the convenience of the amenities and services such as ski and snowboard lessons and kids club.
Club Med Sahoro offers a very fuss-free ski holiday.
The other face of Sahoro is the Sahoro Resort Hotel where the Japanese folks stay, as well as a few gaijin looking for a Japanese experience.
Sahoro Resort is also a great option to visit for
day trips from nearby Furano or Tomamu, or as part of a
multi-day tour.
Pros and Cons of Sahoro Japan
Pros
- The Sahoro Ski Resort is exceptional for beginners and if you stay at Club Med, group ski and snowboard lessons in English for kids and adults are included.
- If you stay at Sahoro Club Med, it's very family friendly and you can have a stress-free resort holiday with the kids. You don't have to carry the kids' skis, and you know the kids will be having fun! Everything is looked after. Ahhhh…..heaven! We've rated it as a top family friendly ski resort in Japan.
- A Club Med experience is not for everyone (or everyone's budget), and it's great that there's another option for a hotel.
- Both hotels are very conveniently ski-in ski-out (or close to it).
- The tree skiing is pretty good and most of the Japanese and Club Med folks stay on-piste, so generally fresh tracks are reasonably easy to come by.
- Sahoro offers great views across the Tokachi Plains.
Cons
- Like many other Japanese ski resorts, this is a resort in the truest sense. There's no village with restaurants and shops to explore, and you'll spend every night at the hotel where there's negligible nightlife. However if you want to explore some other restaurants and escape the resort, you can catch a taxi to the nearby town of Shintoku.
- Like most other Japan ski resorts, there's not enough terrain to entertain advanced riders and powder hounds for more than a few days, but it's good to visit as part of a multi-resort trip.
- The Sahoro Express quad chair that services advanced runs doesn't always operate, for reasons that are often communicated or obvious, and the top lift seems to almost never operate, so powder hounds who want to ride some of the best trees have to ski the full vertical of the resort and ride the gondola. This gets a bit repetitive and sometimes there are lift queues at the gondola due to an abundance of school kids.
Pro or Con Depending On Your Perspective
- Sahoro Ski Resort doesn't get as much snow as the big-name Hokkaido ski resorts, especially during the early season, although the quality of the powder that falls is usually great.
Sahoro Ski and Snowboard Terrain
The Sahoro Ski Resort is medium sized with only 610 metres of vertical (420-1,030m) and 21 courses, (ie marked runs), so some riders may find the terrain a little repetitive for trips of more than about 4 days. The upside of the smallish size of the resort is that you don't need to worry about losing any family members - they won't be far away!
The Sahoro ski resort is all below the treeline with various runs cut through the forest. Of the 21 trails, 8 are rated for beginners, 3 runs for intermediates, and 10 for advanced riders (black runs). One of the black runs has a maximum gradient of 39 degrees, but the steep pitch is just momentary. The other black runs aren't too challenging, but the degree of difficulty really depends on the size of the moguls and the number of stumps that may be poking through.
Advanced skiers and snowboarders will prefer to get off-piste because the tree skiing provides a lot of fun for those experienced with trees, and ski patrol don't seem too fussed about it.
The lift network is reasonably well developed with a gondola, 3 high speed quads, and 5 other lifts, but it can be frustrating to try and figure out which lifts they might actually have running on any given day.
Sahoro Snow
Sahoro Japan doesn't receive as much snow as some of the coastal Hokkaido ski resorts (e.g.
Niseko,
Kiroro,
Sapporo Kokusai) and ski areas to the northwest. It typically does well from more southerly storms, which are not as common as the northwesterlies. The quality of the powder is generally delightfully dry, although it's not always well retained because about half of the slopes are east to southeast facing and Sahoro gets a lot of sunny days, whilst the coveted Sahoro Express services black runs with a favourable NNE aspect.
Where is Sahoro?
The Sahoro Resort is located in the southern part of
Central Hokkaido, 167km east of
Sapporo and 130km from the New Chitose Airport (Sapporo International Airport). Sahoro is only 32km southwest from
Tomamu and 68km southeast of
Furano ski resort.
See the
travel to Sahoro page for information on getting there.
Sahoro Accommodation
There is no village at Sahoro and only two options for on-mountain accommodation. Club Med Sahoro is more family oriented and ideal if you want kids activities, ski or snowboard lessons, and to drink and eat a lot, whilst the Sahoro Resort Hotel is more adult oriented and less pricy.
Club Med Sahoro sits a little way up the mountain and is delightfully ski-in ski-out via beginner trails. This Club Med Japan hotel offers the ultimate in convenience and a completely hassle free ski holiday, especially for families. Like other Club Med properties, the holiday is mostly all-inclusive and includes accommodation in upscale rooms, lift tickets, three meals a day, snacks, most beverages, and ski and snowboard lessons in English. Kids' programs are also included for children over 4 and child care for 2-4 year olds is available, so parents can relax knowing that the kids are taken care of. The complex also comes complete with a huge swimming pool that has day beds and umbrellas - it feels a little like one of the exotic Club Med tropical locations!
The other Sahoro accommodation option is the
Sahoro Resort Hotel at the base of the ski area, which is almost ski-in ski-out. You might want to stay at this Sahoro hotel if you don't need many frills, need group lessons (in English), need child care, or if buffet meals are not your thing. The Sahoro Resort Hotel also has the advantage of providing more of a cultural Japanese experience, whilst ClubMed Japan offers more of a modern international atmosphere. The Sahoro Resort Hotel also has a lovely onsen with indoor and outdoor bathing areas.
Activities
Sahoro Resort offers various other activities during winter besides skiing and snowboarding. These include evening grooming tours, fishing, snow shoe tours, snow rafting behind a snowmobile, snow field horseback trekking, and tubing and sledding. It's also possible to get a taste of snowmobiling.