Name: The Ridge Apartments Nozawa
Address: 6715-1 Toyosato, Nozawaonsen, Nozawaonsen, Nozawaonsen, 389-2502, Japan
Rating: 10

Smoke-free property

Ticket assistance

No elevators

General

Laundry

Safe-deposit box

Concierge services

Luggage storage

Services and amenities

Free Wi-Fi

Internet

Tour assistance

Tourist services

Hiking

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Additional measures against COVID-19

Health and Safety Measures

Location

At the apartment

The Ridge Apartments Nozawa

Nozawaonsen

child-bed

child-bed-fee

external-private-bathroom

private-bathroom

shared-bathroom

10-beds

11-beds

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18-beds

19-beds

2-beds

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king-bed

queen-bed

limited-time

lounge

treatment

no-window

bay-view

bosphorus-view

canal-view

city-view

courtyard-view

garden-view

golf-view

harbour-view

inland-view

lake-view

land-view

mountain-view

ocean-front

ocean-view

oceanside

panoramic-view

park-view

partial-ocean-view

partial-sea-view

partial-view

pool-view

river-view

sea-front

sea-view

street-view

sunrise-view

sunset-view

water-view

with-view

annex

basement

main-building

1-bedroom

2-bedrooms

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6-bedrooms

not-guaranteed

wired-internet-access

smoking

sauna

duplex

safe

mini-bar

breakfast-for-1

breakfast-for-2

pets-allowed

wi-fi

kitchen

We had a terrific stay at the Ridge apartments. Yuta, the front desk manager was so welcoming and friendly. We took advantage of his offer to take us to the local supermarket to stock up on supplies to prepare our own meals. He also gave us great tips for restaurants in town. The apartments are spacious, warm, clean and comfortable. They are well located in the village, just downhill from the Nagasaka Gondola station.

A great option for families and groups

Amazing apartments! Great location, great bathroom, bed, heater works so well, storage for suitcases, kitchen facilities are superb. Could not fault this place! Absolutely loved staying here and will be back. Close to ski gondolas and not far into middle of village- about 10 min walk. Yuta at front desk was extremely helpful everyday and made our trip unforgettable! I will be back to see his little baby again! Too cute!!!!

AMAZING

My hubby and I recently stayed at The Ridge Apartments and highly recommend the place.  Shannon and Mia do a fantastic job of running this place.

On arrival Shannon gave us a brief run down of the town, places to eat and visit.

We stayed in the loft apartment, suitable for 2 people.  It is split into 3 levels, entry level for hanging up jackets and storing some luggage, top floor bedroom with en-suite and bottom level, kitchen (full stocked with crockery / cutlery) & small dinning area.

The apartment was super clean and modern with housekeeping coming in every day to take rubbish away and top up coffee / tea and change linen every couple of days.

Location wise we were a 5-8 minute walk to the main Gondola and cafes at the base and along the way to the slopes.  Walk into town was also a short one.

Located next door to the SpaArena (communal onsen) which was perfect for going to the onsen together (bathers permitted in here) and then coming home to our nice and cosy warm apartment.

Shannon picked us up from the bus station to bring us into our accommodation and Mia dropped us off on the way home.

Shannon also drove us into the main shopping centre just out of town (20min drive) to do a shop of any main groceries we needed and to help us with shopping as purchasing Japanese products is not as easy when you cant read Japanese! (very grateful for his help)

Laundry downstairs washing machine and dryer to use everyday if needed.

Bed is nice and comfortable with nice linen and heating available in all rooms.

We will definitely be back next year.

Great Western Apartments in perfect location

a mixed bag. Strange shape room with the long staircase taking up a huge amount of space and kitchen tiny though well equipped. Bed was comfy, location ok and next to the public onsen though to the side of the main village. Pick up was awful - we were left waiting in the cold evening for 20 mins for pick up. Not a good start! Owners were not around all week and Clementine complained that she was left to do everything. I feel for her but that is no excuse for such poor service. entrance area has a lovely fire. great views. Was worth coming to Nozawa just for Paradise run!

a mixed bag

Thank you to Shannon and his family for a lovely stay at the Ridge Apartments in Nozawa. We stayed in the 3 bedroom apartment which was plenty of room for our family of 5 (kids - 19,17,15). The apartment was clean and provided plenty of basic amenities that we required for a 10 night stay. Shannon was very helpful in booking all restaurants beforehand for us and taking us to the supermarket to get essentials. Location - perfect for when you want to walk into the town for the night which we did all nights bar one. It is not ski in ski out. It is approx a 8 min walk to the gondola. You can leave your skis and boots at the ski hire there which is definitely advisable as I wouldn't want to do the walk with ski boots on and lugging skis. As long as you can do this it is fine. My kids are older though - families with little kids may find it a bit of a trek at times but we were fine. Overall it was a great stay and I would recommend it to anyone who asked. Thanks Shannon. Hope to see you again.

Great apartments in Nozawa

I would like to thank the manager Shannon and his family for their wonderful attention to detail and unwavering hospitality during our 8 night stay at The Ridge in Nozawa. Our family of 5, 2 adults and 3 kids stayed in the 3 bedroom apartment, so much room for all of us and every amenity you could think of to make our stay so comfortable and enjoyable. The location was perfect, a simple 5 min walk to the main gondola via coffee shops, bars and restaurants, ski hire and lift passes were also in the same place.
We loved our time in the truly special and memorable traditional Japanese ski village of Nozawaonsen-Mura.
Another positive was The Ridge was right next door to the community onsen, where my my family would visit every day after a hard session on the slopes - swim wear acceptable!
Highly recommend staying at this boutique apartment, close walking distance to everything and every thought has gone into making it an easy and comfortable stay.
Cheers O’Brien family from Sydney 

Fantastic apartment in perfect location to the slopes 

We have just returned from 7 nights in a 2 bedroom apartment at the Ridge Nozawa where we had a brilliant stay. The property is in the perfect location - just a 5 minute walk to the bottom of the slopes in the morning (we had 3 kids in tow, probably only 2 minutes otherwise!), right next door to the Sparena (outdoor, mixed hot baths - great after a day of skiing), and only a couple of minutes in to town for all the restaurants for dinner. Shannon and his wife Mia are managing the property this summer and are fantastic. Nothing is too much trouble, they had fantastic recommendations for ski hire, restaurants etc, and really made us feel welcome. By Japanese standards the apartments are enormous. Very spacious to come home to at the end of a day of skiing, and are self contained which allowed us to self cater for breakfast and some dinners. Shannon also takes guests into the larger supermarket in town a few days a week should you wish to do more self catering. The apartments also have two large areas for drying ski gear at the end of the day which saves cluttering up the apartment. According to my kids this was the best place we stayed in our time in Japan. Overall I cannot rate this accommodation highly enough and will be recommending it to family and friends.

Amazing stay!

We chose The Ridge based on the reviews on Tripadvisor which has never before let us down.   

 

Regrettably on this occasion our experience was far from that detailed by previous reviewers however it is of note that the previous reviews were from the last ski season 2018 and mentioned names we did not come across in our stay. 

 

Communication 

Communication prior to arrival was poor at best. We have email chains trying, in vane, to get help organising a few dinner reservations, to arrange pickups, and confirm bedding arrangements (we had to provide this 3 times). Emails went unanswered for weeks, those that were answered often did not adequately address our requests, and those that did were too late to be of use. We eventually had to phone to get a response to some enquiries and when asked why emails were not answered they replied they “we are busy”. Simply not good enough at this price point, and particularly in the context of this being a double 40th birthday and honeymoon celebration (which was never once acknowledged by any staff). We never expected special treatment, but a simple “congratulations / happy birthday” is basic courtesy. 

 

Communication was so poor that even though the Ridge had confirmed they would pick us up from the bus terminal on arrival, we had so little confidence that would happen, that we took a taxi instead. When we arrived at reception, we were left standing with our luggage in reception without acknowledgment for 20 minutes (with one of our party visibly sick). When we interrupted the reception attendant after 15 minutes to let them know we’d changed our arrival plans (so that no-one was waiting for us at the bus terminal), they seemed unaware that our pickup was supposed to be happening. Glad we took the taxi! When we enquired about a pickup for 2 others in our party at about 6pm (also notified prior to arrival), the attendant advised us he “had dinner plans”.  

 

Apartment and room service 

We paid about $1100 AUD per night for a 3 bed apartment for 2 couples. The apartment was spacious and the beds superb. On arrival the temperature in the apartment was somewhere close to 30C - with the heating blasting out on full bore we had to open the balcony doors to cool the place down. The low heating setting (there were only 3 settings with no ability to set a specific temperature) was unbearably hot, so we alternated between cold and hot. This was at least better than our neighbour in the loft apartment, who told us they were leaving their door to the foyer open constantly to try and get some heat in because their room was freezing.  

 

The apartment was mostly clean and tidy, however the dishwasher was full of the dishes from the previous occupants and contained the pot stands off the cooker. Maybe expecting the dishwasher to be emptied and the stove top reassembled was a little much but I don’t think so! One of the lounge chairs had clearly visible, sizable stains on it.  

 

We often opted to not have room service because one of our party was ill and needed to rest. To facilitate this we put the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, but unfortunately the attendant came in anyway. When it was pointed out the do not disturb sign was up so our sick friend could rest, the attendant replied, “I waited until 12pm”. On the one occasion we opted to have our room serviced, they removed some used towels (but not all) but left no replacements. 

 

Facilities 

Reception was open on an ad hoc basis, and the staff routinely appeared overwhelmed. Other clients luggage that arrived by overland transfer sat in reception for anyone to help themselves to for days! Access to the ski locker area was from the front door with no security - anyone could have walked in and cleared the place out. See the attached photos for the vacuum cleaner that sat in the same spot in the hallway for 3 days and the rubbish bag for 2. 

 

Reception advised that they offered a daily transfer to the local grocery store. When we asked if we could use this service to pick up a hire car less than 5 minutes from the grocery store, we were advised “we’re too busy tomorrow, take the bus”. Given we had utilized literally no offered service (including our arranged pickup transfers) at this point, we insisted, and so we were provided with the transfer. It really shouldn’t have been this hard to utilize an offered (in writing) service, and made an already unpleasant experience worse.  

 

Overall I would not recommend this complex, mainly due to service levels, but also because there’s far better value facilities elsewhere in Nozawa Onsen. The staff I’m sure are doing their best, but are overwhelmed and overworked, and inexperienced in basic hospitality service. At any price point the service we received was grossly inadequate, but at this price point it was almost comical.

Charge like a wounded bull for no service - Stay anywhere else!

First of all, thank you Liz, Kain and the team for the fantastic service. 
The loft unit is perfect to chill after a long day out on the slopes. The kitchen is fully equipped, there's a fire-grill in the oven to grill fish or meat, a microwave and a Nespresso machine. The room is cozy and comfortable. The balcony offers a view to one of the runs across to Karasawa area. 
It's a pleasant four to five minute walk up the trail, most will be distracted half way up with skiers practicing their ski jump in the distance. Neo Bar is an ideal pit stop for a beer before heading back to the apartment at the end of a day.
Kain offers a supermarket run everyday at five o'clock if you need to stock up on groceries. He drops guests to the Choa bus station to catch the Nozawa Onsen bus to liyama station for trains to Tokyo. Liz will make any reservations for taxi arrangement or restaurant booking without hesitations. Nothing seems to be too much trouble for them. 
Spa Arena is just next door to the apartment. There are many more traditional onsen around in the village that you can explore. 
It was a wonderful ski trip for a week. Looking forward to coming back again soon. 
Thank you very much.

Fantastic ski trip!

We stayed at The Ridge for 2 weeks and loved it. Lovely 2 bedroom apartment - comfortable and quiet. Very easy 2 minute walk in the morning up the road to the trail that leads down to a ticket booth and link lift and then an easy ski to the main gondola. Ski room was great - nice warm, toasty boots and gloves in the morning!

Best part of staying at The Ridge was the wonderful care and attention from Liz and Kain. They looked after us so well. Liz did all our restaurant bookings, helped with making sure our bags were sent ahead of us to Tokyo and answered all our questions. We can't wait to go back again in 2019!

The Ridge Apartments Nozawa

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