Overall the Natulux was a very nice hotel that was clean and modern, and the English speaking staff were able to provide plenty of great information and advice. We’d highly recommend this hotel, especially if you have a car or catch taxis to the ski resort.

It made sense for us to stay in downtown Furano. We didn’t really need to stay near the Furano ski resort because we planned to also ski at other nearby ski areas. In the past when we’ve been to Furano, we’ve ended up getting a taxi down to the town to go out for dinner most nights, so we thought we might as well stay there. It certainly was nice to enjoy the great location of the hotel and just walk from the hotel and easily access an abundance of restaurants.

Our room was tastefully renovated but quite small. Small hotel rooms are very common in Japan, and also common in Japan is to fill up the limited room with unnecessary paraphernalia such as a humidifier, linen spray, and aromatherapy lamp. And also common to Japanese hotels, there were only a few hooks, when many more hooks would have been helpful to manage the limited space. The bed was a good size and it was firm (as is typical in Japan) but comfortable, and I liked the way they provided a Japanese-style beanbag pillow as well as a western pillow. The heating was excellent and very easily controlled.

The wifi in our room was really bad and at times was pretty much unusable. The hotel was rather full, and perhaps everyone was watching Netflix?! The wifi down in the lobby lounge was a little better, but we had to get a code from the staff each time we wanted to use it.

The modern and clean public baths were very welcome after a big day on the slopes. The women’s bath was quite small (the men’s bath was a little bigger), but luckily I was the only person there. Next door was the area where you can lie down on the hot stone, which attracted an additional fee. One thing that seemed a little daft was that yukata gowns were provided, but you weren’t allowed to wear your gown outside the room to go to the public bath.

Another strange thing was the shuttle to the Furano ski resort. We had a car so we thankfully didn’t need to use it. The once-a-day shuttle only took 15 people and you had to start queueing for the bus 30 minutes prior to departure. You’d have to go outside and count how many people were in the queue and then go back inside the hotel to buy a ticket (instead of them just providing 15 tickets). Meanwhile the Lavender bus to the ski resort doesn’t depart until 11am. Not sure why the hotel just wouldn’t put on more shuttle buses?
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