Hokkaido in 3 days
Japan's northern island is a fifth of the country's land with 4% of its people: volcanoes, caldera lakes and lavender fields spread over 83,000 km². Come in summer to hike the Daisetsuzan and eat sea urchin in Otaru, or in winter for the powder snow and the Sapporo Snow Festival.
The plan, day by day
Day 1
- Morning
Odori Park and the Sapporo Snow Festivalfree · 2 to 3 hA 1.5-kilometre strip of green across the city, home to the snow sculptures in February and a vast beer garden in summer.
- Afternoon
Otaru Canalfree · about 1 hDug in 1923 and saved by residents in the 1980s, now lit by gas lamps, with breweries in the old stone warehouses.
Day 2
- Morning
Lake Toya and Mount Usuhalf a dayA round caldera lake that never freezes, beside Mount Usu, which erupted four times in the twentieth century and raised the still-steaming Showa Shinzan.
- Late afternoon
Furano lavender fields (Farm Tomita)free · 2 to 3 hA family farm growing lavender since 1958, with sloping fields of lavender, poppies and cosmos in rainbow stripes below the Tokachi range.
Day 3
- Morning
The Biei hills and the Blue Pondfree · half a dayRolling fields that change colour with the crops, lone landmark trees, and a milky-blue pond of drowned larches formed behind a 1988 dam.
Further afield (over 130 km from the base hotel), best as a separate stop: Hakodate and Mount Hakodate, Daisetsuzan and the Asahidake ropeway, The Shiretoko Peninsula.
Where to sleep in Hokkaido
- The Stay Sapporo · €25 a night
- Untapped Hostel · €22 a night
- Sapporo Tokyu REI Hotel · €55 a night
- Hotel Gracery Sapporo · €80 a night
- Keio Plaza Hotel Sapporo · €95 a night
- Sapporo Excel Hotel Tokyu · €85 a night
- JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo · €200 a night
- Sapporo Grand Hotel · €150 a night
- The Royal Park Canvas - Sapporo Odori Park · €140 a night
Plan this trip
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