It can be a pretty stressful time when you’re booking a trip to Japan. Itineraries, accommodation, airport transfers– trying to organise everything can become a whirlwind. Then, when it comes time to decide on the lift pass that will best suit your needs, it adds a whole new layer of planning and preparation.
We wanted to make this process easy for you by curating a step-by-step guide on the different kinds of lift passes available in Japan, the differences between each, and the varying benefits.
Types of Niseko Lift Passes
There are four main types of lift passes available at Niseko United resorts:
Day Passes
As with most ski resorts around the world, day passes are tickets that cover you for a selected number of days. These passes can be purchased for single day options, or for multiple consecutive days.
Note: some resorts offer consecutive day passes that include rest days, so if you have a 6 day pass, it can be used over 10 days.
Season Passes
Season passes offer riders the freedom of unlimited lift access throughout the entire winter and spring seasons. In Niseko you can buy season passes for individual mountains, or an All Mountain pass, which covers you for all four of Niseko’s resorts.
Hourly Passes
A lot of Niseko’s resorts offer hourly lift passes which can be used across multiple days, but only for a limited amount of time. E.g- If you buy a five hour pass and ride 3 hours on one day, the following day you will still have two hours remaining on the pass. The system is gauged per hour, so if you scan in at a lift station at 12:01 p.m, your pass will be deemed as used for that hour (12:00 – 12:59). If you are wanting to buy an hourly lift pass and use it over multiple days, make sure your last ride is within the hour (12:59 p.m).
Point Passes
Point passes are quite a simple system, in general, 1 point = 1 lift, therefore if you buy a 12 point pass, you have access to use the lifts 12 times. However, some lifts are worth more points, ie- a gondola can sometimes be worth 3-4 points, so it’s always important to check before you tap on!
How to Buy Niseko Passes
In-Resort
All of Niseko’s resorts have ticket boxes at the entry to the mountain, offering guests the opportunity to buy their lift pass and go riding immediately.
Online
There is also the option to pre-purchase your lift pass online. While this is an option that saves time and can quite often offer discounts, you will still need to collect your pass from the resort ticket office, unless you have a lift pass from the previous season that you have topped up.
You may find it unsurprising that given Niseko’s huge amount of annual snowfall, each of its neighbouring resorts also receive huge dumps of powder every winter season. If you’re looking at exploring more than just the Niseko United resorts, here are a few of the best neighbouring resorts and the types of lift passes that each sells:
