Monaile Madarao

5th March 2023

 

We loved our stay there! I particularly loved the location in relation to the ski areas with ski in ski out.

 

We felt we could go back to the hotel for a break or change of clothes if we needed to and this was terrific.

 

 We used the bathing facilities every night and it was handy that this was open until late in the evening.

 

I particularly enjoyed the design of the rooms and all the furniture. This all had a fabulous retro feel. There was plenty of room for belongings and the sliding door between the rooms and beds was nice for some privacy when relaxing or resting.

 

Thank you again - my friends and I took photos and we are organising to send these to you

 

Kind regards

Jenni

 

 

 

 

12th March 2023

 

Thank you for you email and continued communication throughout the trip. 

My father and I booked a holiday with Japan Snow Accommodation and visited Madarao in mid March, the resort was very quiet however all the restaurants we visited were fantastic. 

 

The room was very neat and tidy and the shuttle bus service was excellent. 

Next time I come I will visit earlier in the season however the snow was still fantastic to ride on. 

Thank you. 

 

Renee

 

 

 

 

12th February 2023

 

Madarao did it again; the forecast said 1 cm of snow on the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of our week there, but is snowed about a meter and a half! 

 

We had already either sunny days or powder days for the first 9 days of skiing, and Madarao / Tangrum was amazing again. 

 

Met up with mates from Mt. Buller there and there seemed to be a guitar on every wall of the bars so the nights were great fun too. 

 

We love Madarao! 

 

That’s our 7th time there and it is so good : ) 

 

Thank you, 

 

Warren 

 

 

 

 

 

17th January 2023

 

Monaile is great. 

 

We had the Japanese style family room – it is huge!  Large bathroom, large fridge/freezer (great for stocking up from 7-11), tatami mat sleeping area with sliding doors, 2 single beds and a lounging area/couch (and a desk!) – heaps of room for a family of 4.

 

Full buffet breakfast was only available up at the madarao hotel – but a 2 min shuttle ride was easy.  

 

Onsens uncrowded and great.

 

Thanks for arranging a great trip.

 

Liz

 

 

16th January 2023

 

We had a great stay at Monaile Madarao. 

 

The hotel is in a great location, ski in/out to the mountain and a 5 minute walk to Aki's bar which has great coffee and pizza and is a lovely place to hang out.  Aki's also does ski and snowboard lessons from here. 

The staff at Monaile were super friendly and couldn't do enough for us.  The hotel itself was amazing value for money, it is ageing but rooms are very large (slept 2 adults and 2 kids comfortably) although take your own pillows if you can!  The izakaya style restaurant and bar on the first floor was lovely and we ate there a couple of nights.   An onsite onsen in the hotel is a great feature. There are lockers and a dry room to store your ski gear on the ground floor which is very handy.  You have a choice of continental breakfast at Monaile or full buffet at Madarao Kogen (we opted for continental most mornings as more convenient with our young kids).

 

Monaile runs a shuttle bus on demand to Madarao Kogen hotel between the hours of 7:30am and 9pm which is very convenient.  You can also use the facilities at Madarao Kogen including the indoor/outdoor onsen which is really nice. There are two restaurants here too, with many other restaurants and bars within easy walking distance from here. 

 

Overall, we loved Madarao ski resort, it was quite quiet and some days felt like you had the mountain almost all to yourself. Lots of nice places to eat around the village and as it was quiet the driver from Monaile even dropped us off and picked us up from the restaurants a couple of times.

 

The mountain is quite large and has lots of runs for all abilities.  An all mountain ski lift pass gives you access to neighbouring Tangram as well which is great.  There is an awesome snow park there for the kids (much better than the one at madarao) which for a small daily entrance fee gives you access to lots of different taboggans and the hill has a magic carpet to save you walking up the hill.  There is also a great cafe with awesome views at the top of Tangram mountain - you can catch the chair lift up even without your skis so we took the kids up there for lunch one day (no lift pass needed for them for this lift).  Tangram hotel also has an indoor heated pool. You can ski over to Tangram easily or there is also a bus that runs several times a day between Madarao Kogen and Tangram (cost 400 yen).

 

There is no ski hire at Monaile but there is a ski hire shop at Madarao Kogen which is very easy to access. 

 

Easy access to Iiyama on the bus for between 400-700 yen each way to go to the supermarket.  For basics there is a small shop at both Madarao Kogen and Tangram. 

We have been to both Hakuba and Nozawa Onsen before and we enjoyed Madarao the best! We look forward to going back soon!

Cheers

Jo

 

 

 

15th January 2023

 

Early Feb 2020

 

We enjoyed staying at the Monaile. The room was a great size, bigger than at the Madarao Kogan Hotel. View was not as good but the staff were very good. Shuttle service was fantastic and worked well for us, as was the lockers for ski storage etc. Pillows remain a problem, but this is definitely a Japanese issue rather than accommodation specific. Feel like you are sleeping on a wheatbag!

Not quite ski in ski out but close enough and made for good exercise! Close to Aki’s for good coffee and food and lessons for the kids. The onsen was clean and a good temperature and was enjoyed by all.

This is the second year we have used your accommodation service and I have found it to be excellent.

Will be returning again once we are allowed to travel again of course.

Sonya

 

 

Early Feb 2020

 

We had a fabulous time once again you have assisted us in getting some great accommodation for our stay.

 

We were very fortunate with our trip in early Feb -  we were worried about a lack of snow however it started coming down a day or so before we arrived and we had excellent snow for our whole stay.

 

We had not been to Madarao before and the Madarao Monaile was fantastic – our room was huge with separate shower and toilet as well as plenty of room to move around.  We have been to Japan many times - the onsen at the Monaile is probably one of the best we have been to.

Breakfast was very good and a mixture of Japanese and Western with different things each day.

 

The only thing I was concerned with before we went was the getting to and from the ski area each day and heading out to the restaurants at night – this was not an issue – the courtesy bus was running all the time and the most we waited was probably 5 – 10 mins. Most of the time it was sitting outside waiting to transport you.

 

Reception was very helpful and there was always an English speaking person on during the day and we arrived in the early hours of the morning and were greeted by reception upon arrival.

 

Restaurants at Madarao were very good and we enjoyed our time at Madarao immensely. 

 

It was great to catch up with you personally Hisae at the Monaile and we look forward to booking another trip with you hopefully for 2021.

Thanks,

Greg

 

Dear Greg,

It was very nice to meet you too! I rarely get to meet with our clients in person. So I was pleased to catch up with you in person!!! Thank you for booking with us for previous years! I look forward to assisting your next trip to Japan!

Regards,

Hisae

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Feb 2019

 

Yep awesome time, very lucky with the fresh snow that week.

 

The only real issue was the beds are extremely hard. Luckily after the first 2 nights I thought to ask reception for some futons. Putting them on the beds helped, but the first 2 nights were terrible. Sore after sleeping. The rest was great, good food, good food options, great skiing. 

 

Andrew

 

 

 

 

 

Mid Jan 2019

 

My stay was great!

 

Thanks!

Rob

 

 

 

 

Early January 2018

 

We had a wonderful trip to Japan, it is an amazing place to travel to. 

 

I unfortunately injured myself on the first day of snowboarding (i thought i had sprained an ankle, but discovered when we returned home that i had actually broken my fibula!)

 

We really enjoyed our stay in Madarao it is a brilliant place to take children (we would have loved more snow!) but all the staff at Madaro Kogen and Monaile Resorts are so friendly and helpful. 

 

The courtesy bus was great taking us between the two resorts. We enjoyed our stay at the resort, they could improve the breakfast buffet and nightly dinner choices. However, we found some funky places to eat in Madarao Village. All in all we had a great stay!

Aki's ski school was amazing! The staff were brilliant with our children, the girls were skiing from the top of the mountain by the second day! Aki's Pub has really good Pizza! Yummo!! 

 

Thank you Hisae for all your assistance in putting our ski holiday package together, you were so efficient and helpful.

 

I have recommended you to other friends and i will keep mentioning your services as you made our ski holiday so easy to plan. We will definitely go back to Japan, the whole family loved it! 

 

Thanks soo much!!

Claire

 

We have just had an absolutely awesome week here at Madarao. We have had to leave a day early due to an early flight and back to work up in Niseko!

The staff have been wonderful, the mountain been super fun and the weathers been incredible. We’re very grateful for this experience and would like to thank you, Madarao Mountain Resort and Mount Buller for this opportunity!

We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to the staff that were particularly looking after us as they were away from the desk when we left Madarao Kogen so if you could we would really appreciate you thanking them for us.

Kind regards,

Jasmine Langworthy & Joshua Considine 

 

 

 

 

Mid Feb 2018

 

We enjoyed our holiday in Japan very much. Travel to and from Madarao was easy and smooth on the train from Tokyo and from Iiyama to Madarao on the bus.

 

The staff at the Madarao Monaile were very friendly and helpful throughout our stay there and the rooms were comfortable, clean and warm. It would be an improvement if more signs in the hotel were in English as well as Japanese. The breakfast buffet was comprehensive and catered for both Japanese and western tastes, though I would have liked to have more fruit and cereals available. It was lovely to have breakfast looking out at the deep snow.

Something we all took advantage of was the onsen every afternoon to have a nice hot bath after the day of ski-ing. It was so relaxing and therapeutic to soak away any muscle stiffness after a long day out on the snow. The location of the hotel is excellent, we just walked out of the front door, a few steps to the side and strapped on our skis and snowboards to start the day on the slopes. 

 

We were a party of 4 adults and 3 small children and everyone enjoyed themselves very much. During our stay in mid February there was an excellent coverage of snow with several drops of snow interspersed with sunny days. There are slopes for every level of skill and even the 3 year old child in our party was ski-ing. Apart from a couple of days over a holiday long weekend it wasn’t crowded and we had a great time ski-ing and snowboarding without wasting a lot of time in the lift ques. On the public holiday weekend an extra lift was put into operation, so waiting time was very minimal, never more than a minute or two.

 

We had dinner at a different restaurant in the village every night and thoroughly enjoyed the Japanese food at every restaurant we went to. They were all quite close to the Madarao Kogen, the main section of the hotel and we never had any problems using the free shuttle bus service to return to the Madarao Monaile wing of the hotel. 

 

I would not hesitate to return to the Madarao Monaile for another visit and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, relaxed and laid-back holiday in the snow. It makes for excellent family holiday stays and caters well for skiers and snowboarders of all skill levels.

Attached are a number of photos taken during our stay at Madarao Monaile which you are welcome to use for publicity or your website. 

 

Best Regards,

Frank

 

 

 

 

 

We had a fabulous stay at Madarao. This was my visit ski holiday ever so I was a little nervous about the whole thing.  Your service was fabulous, very professional.  Our booking went very smoothly, no issues at all once we were on the ground.  Everything as planned. The accommodation was clean, tidy.  Basic but very adequate.  Room was warm which was the main thing!  And there was plenty of hot water so we were always warm! The shuttle bus up to the main resort was very frequent.  It really was no hassle staying down at the annexe hotel.   We used the facilities of the main hotel without any issues.  The Onsen at the main hotel is lovely.  Buffet restaurant also good.  Breakfast at the Annexe very Japanese style which was lovely. We had a great trip, wonderful experience which went very smoothly.We would definitely use your service again and highly recommend Madarao if you want a very Japanese ski experience.  There were few Western tourists at Madarao which made our experience all the more authentic which we enjoyed immensely. Thanks and cheers

Sharon

2016 

I just wanted to say thank you and all the staff of Madarao Monalie that made our stay a wonderful experience. The warm hospitality, nothing was ever a bother or an inconvenience – its very much appreciated. We will miss Madarao (beautiful people & place) – until we’re there next. Ross, Amy, Peter – thanks for all your assistance in helping us get to experience Madarao. Thanks & kind regards,

Peter

2016

I’ve now back at home and work and still thinking about my time in Madarao. Enjoyed the hospitality and looking forward to the next time I’m there. Kind regards,

Mark Browne

Late March 2016

Thanks so much for all your help. We are still at Madarao enjoying the fabulous Japanese hospitality of all here especially Toru who has looked after us so very well, he is Si,ply delightful and so helpful. We have been down off the hill on the local bus that is the only one still running to Iiyama. Iiyama itself has so much to see especially the clay doll museum, amazing!

The brand new info office at the wonderful new Iiyama station is excellent and you can see all the buses coming in from inside their picture windows and lovely heated waiting area. We also did a trip to the snow monkeys that Toru helped us arrange from the station for 4800 yen plus discount if you use the bar code on the brochure, about $50 each. Before the big dump of snow it looked like the season would end this week but we are now snowed in! Took another trip on local bus to Nozawa Onsen and returned on the Nozawa Liner bus which is still running from the station.

Many thanks again, I am more than happy to provide any kind of promotional support I can for this fabulous lesser known resort in the area. Do let me know if I can be of any help. Do you have Toru or Aki's full names and email contacts as I would like to send them personal letters of thanks. Here are some from Madarao Kogen for you to use in what ever way best suits the support of both resorts - a great place for aussies to visit and ski and sOOOOO easy with the beautiful new Iiyama Shinkansen sation right at the bottom of the hill. Even though we were at the very end of the season and most buses had stopped running we could still work around the community bus timetable and get down to walk Iiyama City, do the snow monkeys tour including beautiful Shiba Onsen on the way back and went down later in the week again to go over to Nozawa Onsen for a look. Then.....we had a meter of snow dumped on us over two nights and days so of course went out for the next three days to play in the pow!

It was just beautiful, Toru was sensational as was Aki and Toru even drove us down the hill on the final sunday morning as our shinkansen connection for Osaka via Kanazawa didn't match with the local bus. He's simply the loveliest guy and so very helpful. I would do what ever I can to assist you guys support our Buller/Madarao relationship and feel so very privillaged to have been accepted into the program from BSL. Ski Hire people at Madarao Kogen Hotel couldn't do enough to help us, gear was fine! They had our soft boots ready for us each time we turned up back at ski hire! I have about 1000 pictures of all over Japan, do let me know if you'd like me to hunt you up some specific areas - like Shinkansen photos etc.

Kind Regards Lea and Rod Gill

Mid January 2016

Madarao hotel this was really great for families and would highly recommend this hotel and location is fine. It’s a quiet family hotel with all the facilities you could want. Lovely rooms. I don’t mind if you put my Madarao comment on the web site. Thank you again.

Lorraine

Mid January 2016

We stayed Monaile Madarao in Mid January. Two families of 2 adults and 3 children each. The hotel was very comfortable and perfect for a family. Great views of the slopes from the rooms and very clean. Fairly basic accommodation but excellent value. Excellent in Hotel Onsen. Breakfast was always good and perhaps better than the breakfast on offer at Madarao Kogen Hotel which is the sister Hotel. The shuttle between the 2 Hotels was terrific. It went whenever you wanted with very little wait. Being able to ski pretty much from outside the door down to the lifts every day was a huge bonus. The runs were a good mix of challenging and steep right through to some wide gentle cruisers. It was nice to see so many Japanese and so few westerners at Madarao. Lots of snowboarders! Lifts are pretty slow but quite well connected and as the resort is on the smaller size it is easy to ski it all, but it doesn’t become boring. There are good eating options on the mountain and a few great little restaurants in the the village. Be prepared to book for the evening meals as they don’t have much capacity and close early. You could end up eating 2 minute noodles in the room otherwise! One tip is to stock up in Iiyama on snacks and things when you get off the Shinkansen and before you get the bus up the mountain. The supermarket is next to the station. Madarao has very limited convenience store options. Overall a wonderful resort and despite the unusual season of 2016 we still had enough snow to really enjoy the trip. Hisae and the team at Japan Snow Accommodation did a great job recommending the Resort. Thank you Benton van Dorsselaer Hobart Pics attached below

Late February 2014.

Your help and advice was very helpful! Our trip was amazing! We were actually caught in the massive storm... Left sleeping on the floor of the tokyo airport and then a 15 hour bullet train ride! But After 70 hours in transit. We were met by torou at iiamya, amazing man he is! We had four days of the most amazing powder with no one around to steal our first tracks! It was all worth it on our first run down powder wave!! I would return to maderao again for sure! All the staff at monaile and maderao kogen resort were so helpful and the restaurants and people in maderao were also amazing! I'd like to thank you again Hisae for all your help and advice in making our journey so accommodating and fantastic!! Can't wait to visit again in the near future!

Carlie Tyrrell

6th February 2014

I would just like to say that we had a great time All the staff from the lift guys to the staff at the monaile were always helpful and friendly. If you have a stand at this years snow expo in Sydney i will stop in and say hi to you, Aki and Toru. Thankyou again for all your help

N.C

Mid January 2014

Madarao was really fun It is only a short distance from Iiyama (that is soon to get the Hokuriku Shinkansen), making it easy to get to and from by train. It is also close to Nozowa and Togari if you want to change it up and visit another slope for a day trip. I was lucky because the snow was good when I was there, it snowed every other day - letting me experience the clear skies and views to the Sea of Japan, as well as the fresh powder on the Tree Line runs. With mostly school kids on the slopes during the week, there was plenty of fresh snow on the groomed areas all day too The hotel rooms were pretty big, all the staff friendly and helpful, and the buffet dinner really good. There were also few restaurants in the resort area too (so you are not stuck at the hotel for food). Japan Snow Accommodation made it easy to book and I look forward to future snow adventures planned with them Thanks again 

From Shane