Snowfox Nozawa

The Snowfox is a cozy ski hostel with an extremely attentive owner who has your comfort in mind. It’s an easy 2 min walk up the hill to the Karasawa lift. No long ticket lines. Easy to start your ski day! You can actually see people getting on the lift from the Snowfox’s windows. The breakfasts were delicious & filling- a mix of western & Japanese cuisine which kept the kids happy. The hostel is clean & well maintained. We had the large family suite which was very comfortable for 2 adults & 2 kids. It’s an easy 15 min walk to pretty much anywhere in the village which made shopping & eating dinner out easy. We loved the views of the mountains & the valley & even saw a couple foxes one morning! The owner was always available to assist in any way. He helped us send our ski bags back to the airport using Ta-Q-Bin (Black Cat Courier).

Some people didn’t like the limited hours to access the shower/bath facilities. Honestly it was never an issue for our family. The men showered after skiing & the women after dinner. There is a public onsen 5 mins away that is open til 11 pm if the hostel’s hours don’t suit you.

Close to lifts and helpful staff

Basic amenities

Beautiful living room and dining room!

Very expensive. Shower/onsen times didn’t allow for a member of our group to shower. Drying room was very cold and did not dry our gear.

The place was clean, well-maintained and very close to the chairlift. Ski rentals there are reasonably priced, and there’s also a convenient area to store ski equipment when off the slopes Whenever we spoke to the owner, he was very nice and willing to help. He also gave us a lot of recommendations on onsens, ski runs and restaurants to go to The shared bathroom facilities were modern and very clean. The toilet even had an auto-open and auto-flush feature in addition to the normal bidet functions Breakfast was simple but tasty and healthy

There are no options for private bathrooms, and shower times are limited. However, we worked around this by going to a few of the many onsens in town

A really comfortable, welcoming stay. It’s run by a lovely small couple who clearly care about the place and the guests. The food was excellent and the service was genuinely outstanding—friendly, attentive, and always helpful. Great atmosphere and we felt well looked after from start to finish.

Honestly, nothing major—everything was really well run and we had a great stay.

The owner is incredibly hard working. The place is very well kept and exceptionally tidy. Location is across the street from the chairlift and the parking lot. The breakfasts were delicious!! I was initially apprehensive about the group shower/onsen but it was so warm and nice after a day of skiing!

There is a chair lift across the street if you plan on keeping your skis on property. Breakfast was alright.

I would not recommend staying at this... hostel or hotel? Quick run down: THERE IS ONE SHOWER FOR ALL THE GUESTS IN THE ENTIRE PLACE... the people running this place are not Japanese, but portray as a Japanese Ryokan... it is not. Our 'family suit' was literally the basement, next to the one single bath room (in the entire building for ALL guests - 20+). We had no door to our area and the operator walked into our area unannounced multiple times. The IKEA mats they give you to sleep on and the carpet in this area caused us all to have allergies every night and we found large spiders in the room. I realized on our last day, they had a surveillance camera in our area also (where I had to change myself and my children). The bathroom was an entirely different issue - they have a sort of tiny Onsen bath room so guest can group bath together. Men are allowed to bathe from 15:30-17:30 and Women 18:00-20:00. If you are skiing, you will struggle to make it back before 17:30 each day - owner suggests to walk 20 minutes to a public bath. The one day I was able to bathe my children, some older guests came in to join us. My wife bathed the kids the next 3 days and I unfortunately was not allowed to shower in our hotel the rest of the trip because we never made it back before 17:30. I can go on about so many more issues, but this place cost almost $1000 a night for my family to stay at - my kids have been to more than 22 countries and they are all under 11. I have traveled all over the world and this was one of my worst 'hotel' experiences. The place is under different names on Google and have some fake reviews. I will say if you are a single person or couple - don't care about being treated rudely - and are willing to spend a lot of money for a floor to sleep on(literally), then you may handle this place better than we did. I am surprised Booking.com allows them on their site.

It was very handy to the chair lift. Good facilities and very clean

There was a 10-15 walk into town to shops and restaurants which was a bit tricky sometimes in the snow. But we knew this when we booked

Location to the resort was great! We were also able to walk less than half a mile/1km to lots of good dining options. We didn't go to any public onsen but they were also close by. Very accessible!

The futon bedding is difficult to get comfy on after a long day on the slopes. I would've liked lamps in the room for more subdued lighting instead of just the ceiling light. The hours for the bathroom were inflexible and required evening plans to be made around then in order to get clean.

Very close to the lift. Good quality ski hire equipment

* Wildy uncomfortable and thin futons - we’ve slept on futons before and Snow Fox futons are very poor quality * Bathroom access only at set times - 2 hours for men then 2 hours for women in the evening. Access for women is during dinner time so we had to go to dinner dirty and sweaty * Absurd rules about certain shoes in certain parts of the hotel * Very unwelcoming atmosphere * Unwelcoming and uncomfortable sitting areas * Very far out of town * Not on Google maps * Manager unaccommodating - doesn’t speak Japanese or English. Unable or unwilling to help with many things * Not child friendly