SNOWBOARDING IN NISEKO, JAPAN

After 3 days in New York and LA, it was time to get to the meat of our holiday - snowboarding in Niseko. We flew from LA to Tokyo via JAL, which, by the way, I cannot recommend enough. Excellent service, food, seats and drinks. My favourite was their Royal Blue tea, pictured below - it comes in a wine bottle and is worth up to £120 per bottle, due to the fact that the tea leaves are rare and picked only once a year ... I honestly couldn't get enough. The only slight fault to point out about JAL is that the entertainment isn't very extensive, although I had plenty of movies to catch up on, so it wasn't an issue.

The Hilton hotel, Niseko is a family-friendly ski resort which caters to your every need on a ski trip. Various bars and restaurants, a beautiful onsen, snow activities (including snowmobiling, though we did this at another resort an hour away, as they only had 30 minute rentals at the Hilton), lessons for beginners in both skiing and snowboarding, ski passes and shuttles available for access to all resorts around the area; we wanted for nothing.

While the boys ventured off to board on the highest slopes, I spent the first day in a one-on-one snowboarding lesson at the Hilton. When 4pm rolled around and the ski lifts began closing, we rested our weary bodies in the lobby lounge, drinking Irish coffees and cosying up to the fire, before heading off for dinner and Happy Hour (which spans over 3 hours in various bars). This is how a holiday goes at the Hilton, Niseko. And what more could you want?



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