canabiz

Good evening, we will be visiting Hokkaido for 8 days in August. I have done some research and came up with the itinerary below. Could you please advise if there is anything I should add/remove? My wife and I like to maintain a balance e.g trying to immerse in local culture and activities but remember to relax as well (hence the 2 Hot Springs and outlet shopping . Thanks!

P.S. I thought about squeezing in another city (flying to Tokyo or Osaka from Hokkaido) and visiting for a couple of days but decide to stay put, for a number of reasons.

Day 0: Arrive at Hokkaido (New Chitose Airport) around 18:30. Dinner and check in accommodation (AirBnB in Sapporo)

Day 1: Sapporo sight-seeing (Sapporo Beer Garden/Sapporo Summer Festival, Sapporo Clock Tower, Mount Moiwa viewpoint

Day 2: Pick up car rental. Outlet shopping (Chitose Outlet Mall Rera)

Day 3: Lake Toya Hot Spring (2 hours drive), Toya Caldera and Usu Volcano Geopark

Day 4: Wake up early and drive 2 hours to Unkai Terrace (clouds in the sky). Furano Lavender fields, Biel Patchwork, Otokoyama Sake Museum

Day 5: Otaru area (Otaru Music Box Museum, Yoichi Distillery, Cape Kamui)

Day 6: Check out of AirBnB Sapporo. Hakodate area (4 hours drive) (Fort Goryokaku, Mount Hakodate, Trappist Monastery (Japan’s first Catholic monastery). Stay 1 night in Hakodate

Day 7: Check out of Hakodate AirBnB. Visit Noboribetsu Hot Springs (3 hours from Hakodate) and stay at Japanese Guest House overnight.

Day 8: Back to Sapporo. Return car rental and fly to our next destination.

Total
- 8 days in Hokkaido
- 6 nights in AirBnB Sapporo
- 1 night in AirBnB Hakodate
- 1 night in Japanese Hot Spring Guest House
- 6 days car rental

evergrn

Toya Lake is right along your route from Hakodate to Noboribetsu in the latter part of your trip. Why not just stop by then, instead of trek all the way down as daytrip from Sapporo?

Why come all the way back to Sapporo from the trip to Otaru/Shakotan area? Would make more sense to not go back to Sapporo, but rather end the day much closer to Hakodate by staying maybe around Niseko.

shuigao

Day 6-8 -- just throwing out an alternative - do Sapporo --> Noboribetsu --> Hakodate, then on Day 8 return the car at Hakodate and take the train directly to CTS. It is more expensive, but instead of a boring 5-hour (yes, in reality it will be almost 5 hours than google maps' estimated 4) drive you get to relax and stretch out in the train with some pretty scenic views as it goes through onuma and winds around the east coast of uchiura bay.

In Noboribetsu I'd say book yourself into takimotokan - it's big & touristy and the in-room kaiseki dinner is "meh" at best, but the onsen is huge, has like seven different types of water, and the men's bath overlooks jigokudani.

Anyway, I did a similar trip in Fall/Autumn last year -- Itinerary on blog if you're interested to see some pics.

canabiz

Thank you for your feedback. We wanted to do 2 Hot Springs, one near the beginning and 1 near the end of our trip. I will check the map again and see if we can substitute Lake Toya with something else.

Based on GoogleMaps, I believe it is only about 2 hours of driving from Shakotan back to Sapporo so it will be a nice day trip. We want to keep the cost down by having our base in Sapporo, if you will, rather than finding accommodation in Sapporo for x number of nights then staying in different parts of Hokkaido.

Thanks for the suggestion. Is it possible to pick up the rental car in Sapporo and return it at Hakodate, with the same agency of course, possibly with a fee? I will further investigate this option. I will also check out your blog later.

Appreciate the feedback from both you!

AlwaysAisle

Sure you can. Quick look up for month of August, picking up a car at Sapporo’s Chitose airport and returning at Hakodate airport. Mid-size rental from Toyota Rental Car (one of major in Japan) for 8 days come out as 8303 yen/day (US$75.67/day).

Only thing I will mention is that during August will be peak of summer vacation. If your travel date will coincide with Obon period, the busiest time of summer vacation period in Japan, then everything will be very busy.

You should put cushion on your plan. Especially during Obon period even roads can be slow going, take longer time to get to destinations. Then parking can be time consuming. Expect lines at tourist areas you are planning to visit.

Add waiting time for places you are expecting to visit. If your travel plan coincides with Obon period then add driving time, roads probably will be slow moving. Obon period for 2016 is Aug. 13 – 17.

evergrn

When I drove from Sapporo to Cape Kamui, it took me 50min (mind you, I took the highway, not the expressway) to Otaru, and another nearly 2hr to Cape Kamui. Not including stops along the way. From Cape Kamui, Niseko will be 2hr max. Then the next day Hakodate will much closer than it would be from Sapporo. I understand trying to keep the cost down with accommodation, but heading back to Sapporo when you're going to Hakodate the following day is a huge detour. I think it's worth considering the cost associated with extra driving, not to mention the impact on your schedule (you could be getting to Hakodate earlier in the day). But up to you.

AlwaysAisle

Regarding rental car, just want to check. You have not indicated where you are traveling from, if you have been to Japan previously….

In Japan cars run on left side of the street and a steering wheel of a car is on right side of the car, a driver sit at right side of the car. Just want to check, since I do not know which driving you are accustomed to.

canabiz

We are coming from Canada where we drive on the right side of the road here so it will be a brand new experience for us driving on the left side It should be fun though as there is always a first time for everything!

We will be in Hokkaido from Aug 10 - 18 so more or less in the middle of the Obon. The above itinerary is not set in stone by any stretch of the imagination so we will play by ear and give ourselves enough time to get to the destination (whether by car or train or bus). This will be my 1st time in Japan but my wife is from South Korea so I will most likely visit Japan again in the (near) future when I go back to visit the in-laws.

Just going to take a step back and soak it all in and we figure Hokkaido is probably the best place for this, with all the natural beauty. It is also not too hot in August in this part and I think it will avoid the typhoons as well. It's all good!

AlwaysAisle

Don’t rent manual transmission! Having right hand on a steering wheel and left hand to shift was sure something took me while to get used to.

Unfortunately, trains during Obon will be usually packed. Reserved seats do sell out in advance. Trains can be standing room only during Obon. Also, unfortunate thing is that train reservation can only be made in Japan, cannot get Japanese train tickets outside of Japan. If you wait till your arrival to Japan to buy train tickets for Obon period, there is good chance all reserve seats are sold out.

Then roads during Obon especially roads heading to tourist destinations can get busy and slow moving. Once get to the destination parking can be another thing slow to come by, then another long wait in line to enter the facility, etc. Sorry for negative things only, but during Obon is not an ideal time in Japan for a tourist to travel around tourist destinations.

Actually, Obon is a religious holiday where people go home to their ancestor land. Since Tokyo is place with expatriates from other parts of Japan, Tokyo can get little empty during Obon period. Don’t get it wrong, it is not like there will be no line at Tokyo Disneyland during Obon period.

canabiz

It's all good, AlwaysAisle! Thanks for the heads-up, I will be sure to give ourselves extra time to our destinations. 1 good thing about Hokkaido (from my research) is it is not as populated as other Japanese islands and there are loads of attractions, a little bit of everything for everyone, if you will, so I hope the island is not bombarded with locals and tourists when we go there

pdxkankuu

Booooo! Automatic transmissions are an abomination!

To be fair, when I started playing racing games in japanese arcades, the left-handed shifting was a little unusual at first, but it became fairly natural pretty quickly. But I've also only owned manual transmission cars for the last 20+ years. >.>

canabiz

After taking in the feedback here and on another board, I have revised our itinerary. I think this will work for us, taking into consideration the cost, the travel time (no trip is more than 3 hours driving each way), and the balance (3 hot springs + shopping for the wife and the other activities for me).

I am going to start booking AirBnB places this weekend, it's already end of May and the places are filling up fast.

Day 0 Arrive at Chitose New Airport via Haneda around 18:30. Dinner and check in accommodation (AirBnB in Sapporo)

Day 1 Public transit and walking for Sapporo sight-seeing (Sapporo Beer Garden/Sapporo Beer Museum/Sapporo Summer Festival, Sapporo Clock Tower, Mount Moiwa viewpoint)

Day 2 Pick up car rental. Drive 30 minutes to Otaru area (Otaru Canal, Otaru Music Box Museum). Drive 30 minutes to Yoichi Distillery. Drive 1 hour to Cape Kamui. Drive 2 hours back to Sapporo.

Day 3 Check out of AirBnB Sapporo. Drive 1 hour and 40 minutes to Hokuryu (Sunflower field). Drive 1 hour to Asahikawa (2nd biggest city in Hokkaido). Check in Asahikawa AirBnB. Visit Otokoyama Sake Museum and other activities within Asahikawa.

Day 4 Drive 1 hour and 15 minutes to Sounkyo Hot Spring within Daisetsuzan National Park. Hot spring activities, visit Ginga and Ryusei water falls and go up Kurodake Ropeway. Drive back to Asahikawa AirBnB

Day 5 Check out of Asahikawa AirBnB. Drive 40 minutes to Biei to visit the Blue Pond and the patchwork. Drive 44 minutes to Furano to visit the lavender field. Drive 2 hours to Chitose AirBnB.

Day 6 Drive 1 hour to Noboribetsu for Hot Spring, Hell Valley, Cape Earth Chikyu Misaki @ Muroran). Drive 1 hour to Lake Toya. Drive 1 hour 45 minutes back to Chitose AirBnB

Day 7 Chitose Outlet Rera shopping. Drive 50 minutes to Marukoma Hot Spring

Day 8 Check out of Chitose AirBnB. Return car rental and catch our flight at 14:00 for the next destination

Total

9 days in Hokkaido
3 nights in Sapporo AirBnB
2 nights in Asahikawa AirBnB
3 nights in Chitose AirBnb
7 days for car rental