Interview: Luxury Family Travel Blogger Lives It Up in Niseko

Emma Lambert, the creative force behind the @luxefamilytravel account, caught up with us to discuss her family's recent Niseko holiday. 

Hi Emma, thanks for coming to visit Niseko! How was the journey from Australia? 

Thank you! It's great to be here. We flew with Qantas from Sydney to Tokyo and spent a few days sightseeing there, absorbing all the fun and colourful craziness. We then travelled to Sapporo and met our waiting SkyExpress transfer. Our driver opened up the heated van and presented us with a gift each of a sweet origami crane he had made, what an incredibly warm welcome! He then drove us through the snow and stunning scenery to Niseko.

Do you regularly take snow holidays? 

Yes, our whole family loves the snow and our son represents his school in snowboarding competitions so we visit the snow every six months. We first visited Niseko in January 2018 and fell in love with the town, the powder and it’s convenience to Sydney.

So it was mainly the snow that brought you back this time?

Yes, we were looking for the best northern hemisphere snow for my son to train in and we couldn’t look past the ease of going to Niseko again as it’s so close to Australia and we loved it last year. I also wanted to come back so we could stay at Skye Niseko. I had been watching the development and could see it was in a great location. 

Have you ever seen so much snow before?

Absolutely not! I think this year we were incredibly lucky as we thought we had seen the most incredible powder ever last year when we visited Niseko but this year was just unbelievable. It snowed almost constantly and each morning we woke to unimaginable powder, it just got better and better every day!

Did the kids take any lessons this year?

Yes we got one-on-one lessons for the kids through GoSnow. We found the private lessons far more reasonably priced than in Australia and the GoSnow instructor even picked our child up from WITHIN the hotel ski valet at Skye Niseko. It was a really pleasant experience for both us and our children. My older son is now doing front flips on his snowboard!

My husband also took a powder guiding tour with GoSnow and rode the most insane powder all day long.

Do you think that Niseko is a great destination for a family holiday? 

Yes, especially for Australians as it’s so easy to get to compared to North America or Europe. The kids ski schools are very well set up with English speaking staff, there’s a snow play area you can take the children to with snow bikes and inflatable tubes and there’s even small snow-mobiles you can hire for kids in Niseko and go on a family tour.  There’s plenty of food options throughout the village that kids will love like burgers, pasta, pizza as well as incredible Japanese restaurants for children with a more adventurous palate.

What advice would you give to anyone thinking about booking a holiday to Niseko?

Book early and research the location of your accommodation carefully. Being right next to the ski slopes and lifts makes it so much easier when you bring the children, especially younger ones. A lot of the accommodation is down in the main village and whilst that’s great for restaurant access, it’s harder with tiny-tots. Skye Niseko have a complimentary shuttle bus every 20 mins so its very easy to get to all the restaurants and shops if you stay there. Another tip is to book your restaurants for each night as soon as you arrive (or even before in peak periods) as many of the restaurants only have a few tables so they book out very quickly!

Thanks Emma, we hope to welcome you and the family back next season! 

Check out What's On In February in Niseko.