Traveling to Gifu/Nagoya for Winter Holidays and Snow fun

Hi I am planning to bring my family to Nagoya and surrounding area for winter vacation in mid-February. I have 2 kids, aged 4 and 2.5, we live in Taiwan where it does not snow so one of the main goals of the trip is to let them play in the snow. I have a few questions:

1. Any mountains or ski resorts that are good for children, mainly focused on sledding and tubing. I don’t think we will have enough time to do snowboarding or ski lessons, just want to take them sledding and play in the snow.
2. Currently, we are planning to go to Meiho Ski resort, is this a good option or are there other places you would suggest instead?
3. Any interesting places to stay in the Mountain area? Would like to find accommodations with an outdoor area where the kids can build a snowman. Bonus if accommodations also have an onsen 😉
4. We would like to rent a car for the duration of our stay, I have little experience driving in snow, would this be dangerous or are the roads usually plowed and road conditions pretty decent.
5. I’m a big fan of the Land Rover Defender and thought this would be a good chance to test it out in snowy conditions. Know any place where I can rent a Defender (or similar car) in the area?
6. We are planning to stay in Nagoya for the other half of our trip, any recommended places to stay/ things to do/ things to eat is also highly appreciated!

We are traveling to Nagoya cause one of our friends recently moved there so while there may be better places in Japan for snow activities, we have chosen Nagoya/ Gifu area. We tried asking our friend these questions but being new to the city she did not have much information.

1 comment
  1. I would not recommend testing out your lack of snow driving skills in a foreign country where you don’t know the lay of the land. Some major roads will be well plowed, but where you’re going you don’t know which of those roads are well plowed versus not well plowed roads. Do you know what the protocol is if you get stuck in the snow? It’s stuff like that that is really important to note for winter driving and having to figure it out in a foreign country where you don’t speak, the language is asking for trouble. Unless you already have experience driving in snow in general, don’t try your luck.

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