If I could give this 4.5 stars I would!
I arrived for an 8-night stay at Club Med Tomamu with my 9yo son on 6th December and there was very little snow when we arrived. This was concerning as the main reason for the trip was for us both to ski!
The arrival process was smooth, from the included flights and transfers to getting us settled into our room and our gear into our ski locker. Our room 3617 was at the very furthest end of the property, which felt like (and perhaps was) a 500 metre walk to the ski locker, but mercifully the walk was indoors. Our room had a gorgeous view and was very comfortable, with everything we needed and water bottles replenished as needed.
I booked my son into the kids club ski lessons for the week from 7-13 December and he had such a great time that when I would check in on him at lunch, he would send me away! The kids club team is fantastic, they work so hard to keep the kids happy and entertained, and the ski instructors really look after the kids, helping them progress their skills. By the end of the week, my son (who'd only skied green runs before) was comfortable going down blue runs with me.
It's worth noting that in early season (December), even after a heavy snowfall, the resort won't necessarily open more slopes right away. It takes awhile for things to ramp up. The resort finally opened the gondola to skiers on the 11th, although it closed again in the afternoon, meaning everyone had to share the single Nipo chairlift again. Thankfully the Tomamu express started running on the 12th, although two of the main blue runs which branch off of it were not opened as of my final ski day on the 13th.
I'm a very experienced skier so I wasn't sure if it would be worth signing up for lessons, but I was amazed by the skills and knowledge of two of the lead instructors who skied with me throughout the week in Club 5/6 lessons:
-Willie is Scottish, semi-retired, has a Level 3 ski instructor qualification (which means he is one of the few instructors qualified to teach the top Club 5/6 levels), and keeps busy teaching people to ski and taking people on hikes in Europe when he's not doing automotive engineering. Willie is a veritable encyclopedia of information and has a wealth of ski drills and skills which kept me as interested as I could possibly be on the days when only one ski lift was servicing the entire resort. For four days I grew increasingly frustrated as the lift lines for the one Nipo chair snaked far up the slope. We'd wait in line for a half hour for a less-than-three-minute run. It was sooooooo painful. Willie helped the class make the most of the very sad conditions by providing endless variations of drills and ski tips for us to try out.
-Guido, from Argentina, is another highly skilled instuctor qualified to teach the top Club 5/6 levels. Guido provided one of the most memorable ski days I've had on the Friday when we had multiple lift options. Guido led me and two other advanced skiiers down the black slope multiple times, as well as on cordoruy blues. Guido helped us find the best lines to ski both in powder and on moguls that were forming, he also filmed our technique and gave us feedback as we rode on the gondolas. That day we went on something like 12 runs over 35km of slopes! It was a blast for all of us.
The reason I deducted a star (or half a star really) from my rating is that whoever assigned people to various ski lessons did not do a great job. For half the week there was a Club 4-level couple in my ski group, and this was fine when only the green slopes were open, but they'd never skiied black slopes and so when the black slope opened, I basically lost my instructor, who had to help them pick themselves out of the powder and find their skiis and then redirect them to a Club 4 lesson. This happened AGAIN on my last day of skiing, with a Club 4-level teenager who had also never skied a black run and who was in a combined Club 5/6 lesson, which I had to leave in order to ski the black run. Thankfully, on that final ski day my instructor found a Club 4 lesson to offload them to, and we were able to ski the black run again. The ski sign up team needs to be clear to people that if you can't comfortable ski black runs, then you are not a Club 5+ skier!! I lost one entire morning lesson and one hour of another morning lesson to my instructors scrambling to find the appropriate level instructor for Club 4 skiers. This was not the fault of my instructors, who have no control over what students they are assigned! This is a ski lesson management issue that needs to be addressed. I can't tell you how frustrating this was!!! It's completely dissatisfying and wasted precious time, especially considering that the slopes are only open 9am-3.30pm, and the lessons only run 2.5 hours in the morning and afternoon.
The food quality was quite excellent. I must commend the entire hospitality team for both the food and drinks. Special mention goes out to the king crab buffet!!!
Also the entertainment is wonderful, including the singer and the many circus and dancing acts. We skipped the kids show as my son wasn't keen on participating.
As for experiencing a big earthquake there (it was a 7.5 with an epicenter that was around 80km offshore and 50km under water), the building could really handle the shaking. The warning system in the building I was in however was strange: 'EARTHQUAKE' came over the loudspeaker after the earthquake, making people wonder if we should evacuate or not. Many of us wandered around in our pajamas looking for advice!
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