Positives
Hakuba can receive an epic amount of snow.
Cheaper accommodation and dinning than many other International destinations.
Usually few lift lines.
Negatives
Unless you’re staying in the more expensive ski in ski out properties you’ll either need a car to get around or squeeze into a shuttle bus to get to the lifts at the different resorts.
Compared to Switzerland/Austria/France/Italy and North America the 10 resorts range from quite small to a reasonable size but most are not interconnected like many of the marquee destinations in Europe.
It’s definitely not chic with backpacker vibe in most of the villages.
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I visited Hakuba 5 years ago in early January and my opinion hasn’t changed even though there was much more snow this time - 3 meters in one week! The skiing is great but the powder is heavier than Hokkaido and having to travel up and down the valley on the full to capacity shuttle bus can be annoying. One day it took me 2.5 hours to get from Happo bus terminal back to Norikura usually a 30-40 min trip. So many Aussies you may as well be in Bondi and the amount of Chinese speaking people from China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia has grown exponentially. I came back to visit a friend who has a ski school and lodge and also to do a Canadian ski instructors qualification but I wouldn’t revisit as I think experiences in other Japanese ski areas are far better. Notably Nozawa Onsen and Shiga Kogen which are nearby.
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I skied in Hakuba in January 2020 just before COVID hit. Easy and quick access from Tokyo which is a plus. I stayed at the excellent Umitoyama in Echoland which is owned by a friend of mine (he also owns Frontier Hakuba ski school in Norikura) and although a little out of town was a good base to explore the valley. Great onsen in the town centre. Most of the resorts are single entities and not joined by lifts which after skiing in other places in Japan and throughout the world I find a little perplexing. I found the transport in the valley to be confusing and intermittent but nonetheless widespread so you can get pretty much everywhere but it can some working out. The buildings and infrastructure in the valley are a little run down and doesn't look like much has been done since the winter olympics, although the town centre is quite nice.

Not a lot of snow when I was there but on my last day there was a 40cm snowfall. This is where the problems in this valley manifest themselves. The Echoland bus terminal was packed with foriegners trying to get on the early bus to Tsugiake at the other end of the valley where everyone heads for powder. It was full so we were resigned to waiting for the second morning bus 2 hours later. Credit to the bus company as they arranged a second bus and 20 mins later we were on our way. Arriving at Tsugaike the line to buy tickets extended from the ticket office all the way down to the bus stop, some 200 metres. It took nearly an hour to buy a lift ticket before I could be on my way for a day of backcountry. There are only 2 buses in the afternoon to get back to Echoland. I got there in time for the last bus but there were so many people waiting and there was pushing and shoving to get on. Nearly got into a fight with an American guy.

As predominately a backcountry telemark skier I try to avoid busy resorts preferring places like Central Hokkaido where there are far less people. Also the 40cm of powder that day was quite heavy - no comparison to the light and dry Hokkaido powder. I may be returning to Hakuba to visit my friend but it won't be as a preferred ski destination in Japan.
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Unfortunately, since my previous visit, Wandano Village area has been taken over by Australians. The developer has bought up old Japanese properties and has built apartments and converted Japanese venues into pizza and burger bars: good if you are an Aussie with kids but not a Japanese experience. It's a complete take-over of that area so people need to be aware that if you want Thredbo in Japan, fine but if not you need to book into other areas of Hakuba.
The terrain is more suited to piste busters than going off-piste unless you want to seriously dodge the patrollers and risk the consequences. It hosts a round of the Freestyle World Tour so the out-of-bounds has some serious options but...
Very busy with Japanese on the weekend, and they love to go really fast on-piste!
See our video here

Unfortunately, since my previous visit, Wandano Village area has been taken over by Australians. The developer has bought up old Japanese properties and has built apartments and converted Japanese venues into pizza and burger bars: good if you are an Aussie with kids but not a Japanese experience. It's a complete take-over of that area so people need to be aware that if you want Thredbo in Japan, fine but if not you need to book into other areas of Hakuba.
The terrain is more suited to piste busters than going off-piste unless you want to seriously dodge the patrollers and risk the consequences. It hosts a round of the Freestyle World Tour so the out-of-bounds has some serious options but...
Very busy with Japanese on the weekend, and they love to go really fast on-piste!
See our video here

It’s difficult to sum up Hakuba because it has many parts to it and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. If you only want to speak English and hang out with other westerners and have a chicken parma in an Aussie pub, you can do that. Or if you want more old-school Hakuba villages and lodging that are mostly frequented by Japanese skiers and snowboarders and enjoy a little Japanese culture, that’s possible too.

Since our last visit, not too much has changed. Several new lodges and bars run by westerners have opened up, but the ski resorts seem pretty much the same. Many of the lifts are still archaic and all those yen from masses of visitation in the 2010s didn’t seem adequate to pay for lift or terrain development. And since Covid, the number of operational lifts and groomed runs has shrunk. We’re not sure if that’s due to maintenance issues that they can’t afford to pay for or problems with staffing levels. One major exception was Hakuba Norikura that has bucked the trend, and a brand new lift has transformed the ski resort for avi savvy expert skiers and riders (see our Norikura review).

We stayed at the Tsugaike base which has stark contrasts between decaying Olympic-era buildings against a handful of renovated lodges, new eateries, a brewery and a westernised bar. This village still has plenty of Japanese culture and a stay at the Matsunoki-tei is a great choice for an inexpensive Japanese experience.

Not too far from Tsugaike is the Sierra Resort where one afternoon we enjoyed a long soak in the upscale onsen.

We also stayed in Happo Village which has a nice vibrance, although it was hard to get a meal that wasn’t pizza or burgers. Happo was mostly very westernised but we stayed at Resort Inn Seikan, which was inexpensive and old-school Japanese, and it was a breath of fresh air that we had to communicate with the host in broken English/Japanese and google translate. We also really enjoyed a visit to the Mimizuku Onsen in Happo.

You can see our reviews of the ski resorts of Happo One, Goryu, Tsugaike, Norikura and Cortina.

You can also see our Japanese ski resort ratings to see how the Hakuba ski areas compare, but keep in mind that Hakuba collectively would score much higher than the individual resorts.
See our video here

Super archaic lifts. Super slow.

Snow was crap when we were there early January.

Overpriced everything.

Stupid shuttle system where people bring their skis and boards on the bus?? Wtf?

Weak terrain.
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The Hakuba Vally offers a lot of different riding. Hakuba One is the most crowded resort in the area based on my experience. In many of the resorts ski patrol will pull your lift ticket if you ski out of bounds. If you want good off piste riding and fresh lines go up to Corintina. It is a smaller resort but great tree runs, maybe the best tree runs in Honshu. Beginners shold try Tsugaiki Kogan. There is a huge open hill at the bottom for beginners to practice on. Tsugaikai also offer Heli skiing later in the Season and a rope way that goes far up the mountain. Both the Heli skiing and the rope way are not patrolled so ride at your own risk. I recommend the rope way ove the helicopter based on shear economics. The heli ride runs around 20,000 yen per person and the rope way was 750 per person.
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Every ski area and village in Hakuba is rather different, so it’s somewhat difficult to make some generalisations about Hakuba. Firstly it was rather busy in most parts. Admittedly we did visit at a peak time but it couldn’t be helped. The queues to get a lift ticket or exchange a HV pass were ridiculously long at a few of the ski areas. The ski areas themselves were reasonably busy, but it’s all relative because they were quiet compared to some Colorado ski resorts but hectic compared to some of the lesser known Japanese ski resorts. Since we last visited, some of the ski areas have opened up designated tree zones. It snowed a lot during our trip, but the in-bounds trees tracked out very quickly at a few of the areas (but not all). It really emphasised that having a guide is useful and that the backcountry is the main strength of Hakuba, and if you want fresh powder and don’t want to earn your turns, go to Tohoku.

The central Hakuba villages have become a little more westernised and more expensive since our last visit. Some of the drinks prices in Echoland were ludicrous and a trendy café at the base of Happo One was charging 900 yen for about 10 corn chips and a mouthful of guacamole. Many more staff spoke English and international ski schools have spread across more of the ski resorts. Echoland was a case of “spot the Japanese”, with the bogan on a budget much more prevalent.

Conversely in the more peripheral Hakuba ski resorts, the “real Japan” was more evident. Food and drink were still cheap, and at a hotel in Goryu the staff didn’t speak one word of English, and at a Norikura hotel only a tiny percentage of staff spoke English, which was a little refreshing. At Kashimayari we saw no gaijin.

Considering each of the Hakuba ski resorts and village differ so much, you can see our reviews from this trip for the individual areas:
Hakuba 47
Goryu
Norikura
Cortina
Tsugaike
Kashimayari
Iwatake

You can see our Japanese ski resort ratings to see how the Hakuba ski areas compare, but keep in mind that Hakuba collectively would score much higher than the individual resorts.
See our video here

Stayed at Brownie Condos Echoland - handy spot helpful managers. Fortunately had 100cm plus of new snow during the week. Skied and boarded Goryu, 47, Happo, Tsugaike, Iwatake and Cortina, on and off piste, trees and parks. In a nutshell a skiers and boarders top shelf smorgasbord. We will return!
See our video here