I cannot say enough great things about the hotel and staff at Chalet Ivy. From the moment we walked in the door, they made us feel welcome and did everything they could during our stay to help out and make our experiences great. The hotel was clean and modern, and very centrally located. Since there are fewer restaurants open due to Covid, the staff was incredibly helpful in finding us wonderful places to eat (from fun local Japanese cuisine to an Italian restaurant) and in arranging for the hotel shuttle to get us there. They even helped us get in touch with a local artist whose gallery was located across the street, but wasn’t keeping regular hours due to the pandemic. Sho at the front desk spoke with the artist and arranged a convenient time where we could meet him and buy one of his beautiful rice paper lamps. The shuttle was always available to take us to the slopes and while we could easily have called for them to take us back, we found that by ending our skiing day at the Welcome Center, we could quickly and easily walk 250 meters downhill back to the hotel. The great onsen was a wonderful way to relax after a day on the slopes and the breakfast was incredible (plus by day 2, the waitress knew I wanted milk with my coffee and brought it for me). I would recommend Hirafu...I cannot say enough great things about the hotel and staff at Chalet Ivy. From the moment we walked in the door, they made us feel welcome and did everything they could during our stay to help out and make our experiences great. The hotel was clean and modern, and very centrally located. Since there are fewer restaurants open due to Covid, the staff was incredibly helpful in finding us wonderful places to eat (from fun local Japanese cuisine to an Italian restaurant) and in arranging for the hotel shuttle to get us there. They even helped us get in touch with a local artist whose gallery was located across the street, but wasn’t keeping regular hours due to the pandemic. Sho at the front desk spoke with the artist and arranged a convenient time where we could meet him and buy one of his beautiful rice paper lamps. The shuttle was always available to take us to the slopes and while we could easily have called for them to take us back, we found that by ending our skiing day at the Welcome Center, we could quickly and easily walk 250 meters downhill back to the hotel. The great onsen was a wonderful way to relax after a day on the slopes and the breakfast was incredible (plus by day 2, the waitress knew I wanted milk with my coffee and brought it for me). I would recommend Hirafu as the best of the four towns in the Grand Niseko ski area. Hirafu has, by far, the largest town/village area with a variety of restaurants and shops, plus we found it to be English-speaking friendly.More