The children's first snow

After three full days at Disney Resort, we headed to Yuzawa on 1 March 2024. It was time for both children to see snow for the first time.

We booked one night at Yuzawa Grand Hotel, about a 200-meter walk from Echigo-Yuzawa Station. With two small children, it really helped to be able to drop our bags off before heading out again.

On the first day, we planned to take the children up the gondola to see the snow at Gala Yuzawa. Our timing wasn't very good, though: we arrived at about 3:45 p.m. A Thai staff member warned us that there wasn't much time left, as we had to come back down before 5 p.m. We decided to go up anyway. We'd come all this way, after all. These are local times in Japan.

I have to admit, that wasn't great value for the ticket price. 😂 If we were doing that day again, I'd aim to arrive by 2 p.m. at the latest so we'd have more time up there.

Back at the hotel, we had a room with a semi open-air bath: the bath was indoors, but we could open the window to the outside air. Our youngest was only one year and seven months old, and we weren't ready for a visit to the shared onsen yet. Having our own bath meant we could all enjoy a soak together.

It happened to snow before dawn. When we opened the bathroom window, snow drifted right in. It was only a brief moment, but it made me glad we'd taken the time to choose this room.

Both dinner and breakfast were buffets rather than kaiseki meals. I thought the food was quite good, but what I remember most is the little trolley for a child's plate. That was a hit: choosing food became part of the fun, and Mum and Dad hardly had to help.

The hotel's shared onsen had separate areas for men and women, with both indoor and outdoor baths. The grown-ups got to soak in the warm water as snow fell around us. It was another moment that made this trip feel just as we'd hoped.

Being close to the station also made it easy to head out for food or browse the souvenirs. We took a few photos of the shops inside the station too.

We'd also picked this hotel because Ipponsuki Ski Resort was just behind it. The slope was small and wasn't particularly crowded, which suited us nicely. None of us could ski anyway. We were there for the sledding.

There was a moving walkway inside a tunnel to take us and the sled back uphill. The sledding run was quite long too. To us, it even felt longer than the one at Gala.

Our eldest was four and a half and went down nearly 20 times. We spent almost three hours there, and still it was hard to leave! Our youngest was only one year and seven months old but got to join in the fun in the snow too. Watching the two of them together was something we wanted to remember.

We came away from our first Yuzawa visit loving both the hotel and the little snow slope. I'd happily go back. Seeing our eldest still asking for another go made me feel we'd picked just the right place.