Kiroro Ski Resort Facilities & Services
Kiroro is very well set up with regards to facilities and services. As Kiroro is a resort in its truest sense, most of the amenities and shops are owned by the resort, so the choice for facilities such as ski rentals is limited to that provided by the resort.
Most of the facilities are contained within the Mountain Center, which is located at the main base of the
Kiroro Ski Resort next door to the
Club Med Kiroro Peak.
Facilities for Children
Kiroro Resort offers child care for kids ages 2 to 7. Unfortunately child care isn’t offered from 12-1pm so you need to pick your child up for lunch, and the child care centre is located down in Kiroro Town which you’ll need to ski down to, and then catch the chondola back up to get to the main ski area. Another potential limitation of the Kiroro childcare is that it only has a capacity for 10 children.
Overall Kiroro is very child friendly considering the ski-in ski-out accommodation, the child specific ski school including group lessons, and the abundant activities for young children (see
Kiroro activities). If the Kiroro childcare was a little better, we’d give Kiroro 5/5 for family friendliness.
Kiroro Ski School
The French inspired “Annie Kids Ski Academy” has a good reputation as a ski school for children. Annie Kids Ski Academy not only provides ski and snowboard lessons, but also a range of recreational activities to complement the on-snow tuition. The ski and snowboard lessons are available in a group format for kids ages 3-12 for skiing and 6-12 for snowboarding. The instructors speak Japanese but language assistants are available, and the Kiroro kids’ ski school is surprisingly reasonably priced.
Annie Kids Ski Academy has a dedicated fenced off area serviced by a magic carpet for the novices, whilst the Mystery Plateau is another ski school area for the next progression.
For teenagers and adults, private lessons are the only option for ski and snowboard tuition with an English speaking instructor. The Kiroro ski school also offers the Powder Academy, which allows low-end advanced riders to get some tips in the powder. Pre-booking is highly advisable.
Kiroro Ski Rentals & Snowboard Hire
The Kiroro ski and snowboard rental shop is situated inside the Mountain Center. The prices are not particularly cheap, probably due to the absence of any competition, but the quality of the equipment is very good. The rental shop stocks lots of performance snowboards and skis, including some really big planks (fat skis), which may be required considering the frequent deep powder at Kiroro.
The shop also has a good range of ski and snowboard clothing and accessories (gloves, goggles and cap) for sale.
The Kiroro Mountain Club offers a decent range of rental backcountry equipment including avalanche safety gear, airbags, snowshoes, and skins for skis.
Eating On Mountain
Kiroro has a couple of on-mountain cafeterias. The Asari View restaurant is located at the top of the gondola. As the name suggests, the views are delightful, yet as is typical of Japanese ski resorts, there’s no outdoor seating to fully appreciate the vistas (generally because it’s too cold!). The fare that they serve is pretty standard café food such as ramens, curries, rice dishes and horrid coffees. At the top of the Nagamine no. 1 course is the quaint Crest café.
The Mountain Center at the main base offers a much larger range of food.
Cafeteria Lumiere is a very smart looking café (open 11am to 3pm) which copes surprisingly well with the sometime crowds. The only problem with the cafeteria is that there are too many tempting cake sets and other naughties!
Also inside the Mountain Center is the lovely Double Black coffee shop. Excellent coffee can be hard to come by in Japan, so it seems like a must-do to head there for a brew. Other options in the Mountain Center include a pizza place, waffle stand, or you can have a feast at the Rivierouge Buffet.
Now that the Kiroro Town area is connected to the ski area via a slope and chondola, it’s also very easy to go for a nice lunch down at one of the many restaurants in that zone. The Asian Kitchen is fabulous, or for something different, head for a hot soup at the Ice Star Restaurant and Bar.
Banking Facilities
Kiroro doesn’t have an ATM so get cashed up with yen before you arrive. Thankfully most parts of the resort accept credit cards (especially platinum credit cards!), so you might only need a small amount of cash for incidentals.