So, I’m going to be doing something a little different this week. I see a lot of travel-related content on socials – videos showing everyone what a great time they had. That’s all well and good but I rarely see any framing or discussion around the costs that are involved when making these memories.

As someone who loves to talk all things money-related, I thought it’d be an interesting topic to explore. Now, everyone has a different idea of what a “great” holiday looks like. Holidays (i.e. travel), like a lot of other things in life, can actually be super subjective.

So, in this week’s newsletter, I’m going to do an honest – and detailed – breakdown of how much it costs a family of four (two adults + two children) to travel to Niseko, Japan during peak season (Chinese New Year), according to how my family did it.

You can check out the quick cost breakdown in one of my latest Instagram posts here. Without any further ado, let’s dive into the various numbers, which are all in Singapore Dollars for ease of reading.

Using my, and my wife’s, accumulated KrisFlyer miles on credit card spend, we managed to redeem the international flights from Singapore to Osaka on Singapore Airlines in Economy class on the way there.

For the return (Osaka-SG), we managed to nab Business class tickets on Singapore Airlines. The total miles cost was around 420,000 KrisFlyer miles for both flights while the dollar amount we had to pay (in taxes) came to S$400.

Surprisingly, it was the domestic flights that actually cost us the most, with the ANA flight from Osaka to Sapporo and the Sapporo to Osaka on Japan Airlines ending up being a total of S$1,600 for the four of us.

Running total = S$2,000

Ok, onto the accommodation. Given we got into Osaka in the late afternoon on a Saturday, after a 6.5-hour flight, we didn’t want to immediately get another connecting flight to Sapporo (which would also have been followed by a 2-hour drive from Sapporo New Chitose Airport to Niseko).

Instead of stressing about it, we decided to stay in a basic airport hotel in Osaka – so $250 for the night – and caught the 2-hour flight to Sapporo early the following morning.

We ended up sharing a 3-bedroom house near Hirafu, Niseko with another family of four. It was a reasonably comfortable chalet, replete with a living area and fully-kitted out kitchen.

It had a spacious interior and I’d consider it mid-range accommodation, in terms of cost.

We certainly could have gone cheaper but on the flip side, we could also have paid a lot more for a house somewhere else in Niseko during peak season.

One of the benefits of a house – at least in my view – is that you have a spacious shared living room where the kids can hang out in the mornings or after ski school.

In the mornings after breakfast, before heading to ski school, they could just step outside and play in the snow. Same thing for the afternoons too.

In the end, our share of the house’s cost (for six nights) was S$4,870 so with the night at the airport hotel, the all-in cost for accommodation was $5,120.

Running total = S$7,120

For Niseko, this is the most expensive part of the trip, especially if you’re getting a private instructor for the adults (which we did).

We sent our kids to a ski school based at Hanazono and that cost S$2,600 in total for five days but that was “whole day” which meant 9:30am to 3pm, so they also provided lunch, snacks and hot chocolate. Kids as young as four years old can go to ski school – as long as they’re potty-trained.

For the adults, I did four half-days of snowboarding – my first time! – and my wife shared a ski instructor with a friend for three half-days so the grand total for that came to S$3,700. It was more pricey on my end as I did my snowboarding lessons 1-on-1.

Then the lift passes. This is something most of us probably overlook when thinking about a ski holiday but as soon as you’re pretty much able to start doing a “pizza” with skis, you’re probably able to go down a relatively gentle hill.

And that’s going to require you buying a pass to go up a ski lift or a gondola. For the kids, they were already on the ski lifts from day 1 so for five days of a ski lift pass, it was S$500 for the both of them.

For the adults, I actually bought “pay-as-you-go” ski passes for the first couple of days as I got to grips with the snowboard, and then we both bought a ski pass for Annupuri (one of the mountains in Niseko) for one day so it ended up being S$250 for the both of us for the week.

Finally, you had the equipment rental so skis, helmets, boots, and poles for adults. The total for all four of us came to S$1,000.

Overall, the skiing/snowboarding lessons, equipment rental and lift passes came to a grand total of S$8,050.

Running total = S$15,170

In terms of transport, there were some costs and these were mainly to do with the shared private transfer to and from Sapporo New Chitose Airport.

Why did we opt for a transfer? Well, it’s a 2-hour drive after you land in Sapporo up to Niseko proper. And in snowy conditions, it can be a tricky drive even if you’re used to driving in white-out snow (which I’m not).

So, we decided to forego the rental at Sapporo New Chitose and get the shared private transfer there and back, which set us back $450.

Once we got to Niseko, that’s where we got a shared rental car so we could get around the different areas with the kids, as well as when we weren’t with them.

That’s pretty key because unless you decide to stay in one of the few (pricey) hotels at Hanazono you’ll need to get your kids, or yourself, to the ski school in the mornings and then pick them up in the afternoons.

It ended up being around a 20-minute drive from our house to Hanazono and the car was super useful the rest of the trip as well.

It allowed us to go to various mountains if we wanted to while also giving us the flexibility to check out lunch spots, like ramen or soba, in nearby Kutchan or do an onsen before picking up the kids from ski school.  

Given we shared the rental car with another family for six days, our share ended up being $670. So, together with the private transfer, the total for transport across the whole trip cost us $1,120.

Running total = S$16,290

Finally, the food and drink situation in Niseko ranged from DIY to splurging for us. For everyday basics, such as breakfast or snacks for the kids, we just shopped at the local Lucky or MaxValu supermarkets.

The supermarkets were also handy for our own DIY dinners at the house, such as shabu shabu (some great beef!) and supermarket sushi – which was next level fresh compared to what we’re used to outside of Japan.

All those supermarkets run ended up being around S$350 in total, which was pretty good value considering how much we managed to get.

That was also where the car came in handy as we could get all these fresh ingredients with supermarket runs, as well as picking up drinks for the house. Lunches, we explored nearby areas by hitting up some great spots for ramen and soba.

One night, we splurged on an in-house sushi chef that came and prepared a full-on Omakase for us and our friends (six adults in total).

That was cool as we managed to keep all our kids entertained with various Netflix shows on iPads so we could enjoy our dinner in peace! That ended up being S$350 per adult so S$700 for the two of us.

With the added lunches and all the other dinners out, as well as various onsens along the way, we dropped around S$880. So, all in for food, drinks and onsens, it was S$1,930.

Trip Total = S$18,220

So, that’s it people. Again, just a reminder that this was just how my family did a Niseko trip. There are so many different ways to do a Japan ski trip, both from a cost perspective but also where you go in Japan. This is just one of those ways.

Some people will optimise their travel based on cost. Some will optimise based on comfort. Some will optimise based on time. Like investing, everyone travels differently so there’s really no “right” or “wrong” way of doing it.

For travel, as long as you’re spending what you’re able to comfortably afford (so you’re not ignoring your savings and investing goals) then really, at the end of the day, it’s down to you what makes you happy. That could be staying at budget accommodation or splashing out on a super, high-end luxury hotel.

It’s important to remember that everyone will pare back spending on some things but then be willing to splurge on others.

It’s all down to personal preference but my hope is that I can bring some transparency to how much international travel can cost for families, especially during peak season.

Above I broke down exactly how much it cost my family of 4 to travel to Niseko. It only cost me $150 in taxes to fly Business Class from Osaka to Singapore for all of us. Here's how you can do the same thing.

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