Sansan Cafe and Bar Backpackers

Rooms and decor

You pick between a bunk in a 6-person dorm or a small private room. The dorm bunks come with privacy curtains, a power outlet, a reading light and a locker big enough to swallow a 50-litre backpack. The private rooms are about 8 sq m with a Japanese futon, a tatami floor and a low table — basic, but properly Japanese. Bathrooms and showers are shared on the second floor, kept clean, with four hot-water shower stalls so you're not queueing forever after the lifts close. There's also a shared kitchen open to guests, with a fridge, microwave and an electric stove for throwing together something simple from the market by the station.

Food and amenities

This is the part that sets Sansan apart from a bunk-and-locker hostel. The ground floor opens as a café during the day, pouring drip coffee from locally roasted beans for about $3.50 alongside homemade bento. After dark it flips into a bar serving local Niigata sake, craft beer and wine by the glass for roughly $4. Come evening, skiers from Australia, Korea and Taiwan end up around the wooden tables, and the run-by-run intel on Naeba and Yuzawa Kogen from people who skied them that day is the kind of thing no guidebook tells you.

Location and getting there

The dorm rate of around $34 is the lowest in this list — about half what the $57 rank-9 property charges — and that gap buys a GALA Yuzawa lift pass at roughly $40 a day, or a full set of rental gear. Sansan sits 700 metres from Echigo-Yuzawa station, a 9-minute walk, close to the shopping street out front. A Lawson is only 350 metres away, and the public Yuzawa onsen district is a 7-minute walk when you want a soak the hostel can't give you on site.

Things to know before booking

This is a hostel, so the bathrooms, showers and kitchen are shared — fine for backpackers, a tougher sell if you value privacy. There is no onsen on site, the one thing every other property on this list offers, so factor in the walk to the public baths. And the dorm puts six people in a room; the curtains and reading lights help, but it's still a shared-room setup, so book it knowing what it is.

Our take

Sansan Cafe and Bar Backpackers is the right call for backpackers, solo travelers and young couples skiing Yuzawa on a longer 3-to-7-day trip who'd rather spend on the mountain than on a room. We'd happily recommend it — a closer for the list that delivers both the cheapest beds and a real shot at making friends from around the world over a beer.