Most major ski resorts are around 2 hours drive from the city of Sapporo. The resorts here are spread out so you’ll want to stick to one resort. If it’s your first time, we recommend Niseko as it's very foreigner friendly with great skiing and snowboarding. You will need to fly into New Chitose Airport to get to Hokkaido. There are no direct flights from Australia or the US here so you will need to take a connecting flight from Tokyo.

Hakuba Valley is the most popular ski area in Nagano. There is a cluster of ski resorts all within less than 30 minutes drive of one another including Happo-One Ski Area, Cortina and Hakuba Goryu. Nozawa Onsen, the other major ski destination in Nagano, is known for its charming traditional village and natural onsens.

The village is said to date back to 8th century but has been renowned for it’s natural hot springs and traditional inns. More recently with lift upgrades, Nozawa has also increased the amount of skiable terrain with very reliable snow conditions.

Shiga Kogen is one if the largest ski resorts in Japan that has a ski area with 48 lifts and gondolas. Shiga Kogen is very family friendly and has one of the longest seasons for Japan - going all the way through to the end of May.