Where to Stay Appi Kogen Ski Trips: Which ANA Hotel Is Worth It?
ANA InterContinental, Crowne Plaza (ex-Hotel Appi Grand) or Holiday Inn: which of Appi Kogen's three ANA hotels fits your budget and party size.
Where to stay Appi Kogen ski trips comes down to three ANA hotels sharing one lift network, so the choice is about what you want to pay for rather than how far you will walk to the chair. Pick ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort for a small, all-Club property with an evening lounge included in every room; pick ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen — the hotel most travelers still know by its old name, Hotel Appi Grand — for twin-plus-sofa rooms built for four at a lower nightly rate; or drop to the resort's Holiday Inn tier if breakfast and price matter more than either extra — the full line-up is in the table below. The condition that flips the answer is party size: a family of four fits a Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn room without booking two, while most InterContinental categories are built for two.
Three ANA Hotels, One Lift Network
All three hotels sit inside the same Appi Kogen ski area, which is why the choice here is narrower than at a multi-base resort like Myoko Kogen — you are picking a room, not a mountain. Two of the three carry names most guidebooks still get wrong. ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen was Hotel Appi Grand until IHG's rebrand, and ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen was previously split into Appi Hills Shirakaba no Mori and Appi Kogen Onsen Hotel — both changed name on the same day, 16 December 2021, according to the resort's own rebranding notice. ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort is a 38-room, all-Club InterContinental property and the first InterContinental in the Tohoku region. For readers weighing a North American season pass against these hotels, our Epic vs Ikon guide covers what Ikon's Japan lineup, APPI included, actually buys you, and our Japan ski hub rounds up every base we cover this way. If Appi's crowds or its three-hotel line-up don't suit you, Zao Onsen is the other Tohoku base on the same pass, with a very different onsen-town character.
We have our own history with this mountain: for several seasons we skied Appi for about a week each winter. Two things brought us back — the mountain is genuinely broad for a Tohoku resort, and the snow held its quality through a full week — and two things shaped the stay: there is nothing around the resort, and there is an indoor pool. On a stay that long the pool is not a footnote; it is what makes a non-skiing afternoon work, which is why we would still steer a week-long visit toward the Crowne Plaza, whose indoor heated pool is on site. The resort itself was developed by Recruit, the Japanese recruitment-and-media group, in the early 1980s, which explains the scale of the hotel stock in a place with no town around it.
Appi Kogen Hotels Compared
| Hotel | IHG brand | Ski-in? | Lounge? | Room for 4 | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort | InterContinental | Yes, beginner slope | Included in every room | Select 2-queen categories only | Quiet, a lounge you don't have to earn |
| ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen | Crowne Plaza | Yes, minutes to lifts | No standard lounge | Twin + sofa-bed suites | Families wanting space over extras |
| ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen | Holiday Inn Resort | Hills Building, direct | No standard lounge | Twin + sofa-bed rooms | Breakfast and price over polish |
| Appi Kogen Mori no Hotel | Independent | No, free shuttle (~5 min) | No | 10-tatami room, futons for 4 | Budget base with an alkaline onsen |
What the Lounge Actually Buys You
Lounge access at most IHG hotels is something you earn through elite-night milestones or pay for as a Club room upgrade — it is not a given. ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort works differently: IHG's own opening materials describe it as an all-Club InterContinental property, with all 38 rooms and suites including Club Lounge access rather than gating it behind a room tier. In practice that means an evening drinks setting in the lounge and daily access without booking a separate Club category, which is the trade-off against the hotel's smaller room count and higher rate. Neither Crowne Plaza nor Holiday Inn markets a standard guest lounge on their Appi Kogen pages, so at those two the extra spend goes into room size and breakfast rather than a lounge.
Rooms That Sleep Four
Checking each hotel's own room list is worth doing before you book, because "family room" does not mean the same thing at every Appi Kogen hotel. ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen lists twin-bed suites that pair two single beds with two sofa beds for four guests, plus family room categories described on its own listing. ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen has a similar twin-plus-sofa-bed configuration for four, and a Japanese-Western room that sleeps five on futons. ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort sleeps four only in specific categories — a two-queen room with an added single bed, or two doubles in a corner layout — so it is worth checking room type before assuming a family of four fits any InterContinental category. None of the four hotels compared here appear on our list of hotels confirmed unable to sleep four in one room; for the wider search across Japan's ski regions, see which ski hotels actually sleep four.
Getting There from Morioka
Morioka is the gateway from Tokyo, reachable in around 2 hours 10 minutes on the fastest Hayabusa shinkansen, and Appi Kogen sits roughly another hour beyond it. The JR Hanawa Line runs from Morioka to Appi-Kogen Station in about 60 minutes, though departures are limited and worth checking against the current JR East timetable before you commit to a train. Hotel guests can also book the resort's own reserved shuttle bus, which covers Morioka Station to the ANA hotels in about 70 minutes for ¥2,000 per adult and ¥1,100 for children aged 4–12; it requires booking online by 23:59 the day before travel, and for the 2026-27 winter the resort opened bookings in stages — from 15 August 2026 for December-to-January travel, from 15 September 2026 for February travel, and from 15 October 2026 for March-to-April travel. A separate public bus, Iwate Kenpoku Bus route F01, also runs Morioka to Appi Kogen; its 2026-27 winter timetable was not yet published at the time of writing, so check the operator's site closer to your travel dates. If you are shipping ski bags ahead rather than hauling them through Morioka Station, our guide to takkyubin ski shipping covers the lead time, and taking skis on the shinkansen covers what to do if you're carrying them yourself.
How Close Each Hotel Sits to the Lift
Of the four Appi hotels compared here, three put you on snow without a shuttle — ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort opens onto a beginner slope, ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen is a short walk to the lifts, and ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen's Hills Building connects directly to the resort — while the fourth, Appi Kogen Mori no Hotel, runs a free shuttle of around five minutes to reach the same lift network (checked September 2026). That gap is the practical version of the price difference in the table above: paying more at Appi Kogen buys you zero walk to the chair, not a materially different mountain.
The Full Line-Up
| Name | Walk to lift | Sleeps | Breakfast | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ANA InterContinental Appi Kogen Resort | Ski-in, beginner slope | Up to 4 in select rooms | Buffet, Japanese + Western | Couples wanting the lounge |
| ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen | Short walk to lifts | Up to 4, twin + sofa bed | Buffet, Japanese + Western | Families, more rooms and space |
| ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen | Hills Building, direct | Up to 4-5, twin + sofa/futon | Buffet, Japanese + Western | Value without leaving the resort |
| Appi Kogen Mori no Hotel | Free shuttle, ~5 min | Up to 4, tatami + futons | Optional, paid separately | Lowest cost with an onsen |
Trip Essentials for Japan
Things worth booking before you land, all in English:
- eSIM — Airalo's Japan eSIM: install it at home and data works as soon as you switch off airplane mode at Haneda, Narita, Kansai, or wherever you land.
- Tickets and day trips — Klook covers the Japan Rail Pass, teamLab tickets, and shinkansen-linked day trips; booking ahead skips the ticket-window line.
FAQ: Staying at Appi Kogen
How do you get from Morioka to Appi Kogen?
The JR Hanawa Line reaches Appi-Kogen Station in about 60 minutes from Morioka, though trains are infrequent, so check the JR East timetable before planning around one. Hotel guests can instead book the resort's reserved shuttle bus direct to the ANA hotels, which takes about 70 minutes and costs ¥2,000 for adults and ¥1,100 for children aged 4–12, with online booking required by 23:59 the night before.
Is ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen the same hotel as Hotel Appi Grand?
Yes. The property operated as Hotel Appi Grand until 16 December 2021, when IHG's rebrand renamed it ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen; the same day, two other Appi properties combined and reopened as ANA Holiday Inn Resort Appi Kogen. Older reviews and some third-party booking listings still use the pre-2021 names.
Does the Ikon Pass cover Appi Kogen, and for how many days?
For the 2026-27 season, APPI is one of nine Japan resorts on Ikon Pass, with the full Ikon Pass giving 7 days at Appi Kogen and no blackout dates, and the Ikon Base Pass giving 5 days with blackouts on 26–30 December 2026, 16–17 January 2027 and 13–14 February 2027.
When does the 2026-27 Appi Kogen season run?
Appi Kogen's official 2026-27 winter season runs from 5 December 2026 to 4 April 2027, per the resort's own season pass page; exact opening can move a few days either way depending on early snowfall, so treat the December date as a plan, not a guarantee.