Sapporo, the Otaru canal, the flower hills of Shikisai-no-oka at Biei, the Blue Pond at Aoiike, and the hot springs of Noboribetsu in the south.
Photo: Ken Shono / Unsplash
Day 1
The group meets at Da Nang International Airport for the flight to Japan, connecting as the airline schedule requires, and lands at New Chitose Airport. Your guide meets you and transfers you to the hotel in Sapporo. Depending on landing time, the evening is free to rest or walk out to the Tanukikoji arcade nearby.
Day 2
The morning is spent in Otaru, a port town about 40 km from Sapporo. You walk the canal, built in 1923 and lined with red-brick warehouses and gas lamps that are still lit each evening, then along Sakaimachi street to the Kitaichi glassworks and the Orgel-do music box hall in a brick building from 1912. In the afternoon we return to Sapporo for Odori Park, the Clock Tower and the red-brick former Hokkaido Government Office, with a free evening in Susukino.
Day 3
A drive of about three hours takes us into the middle of the island. The first stop is the Blue Pond near Biei, which formed behind a dam built to hold back mudflows from Mount Tokachi; aluminium minerals in the Biei river give the water its milky blue colour, and dead birch trunks still stand in it. The afternoon is at Shikisai-no-oka, some 15 hectares of hillside planted in long parallel bands of flowers that change palette with the season. We spend the night in Furano or Asahikawa.
Day 4
The morning is at Asahiyama Zoo, known for enclosures that let you see animals from underwater and from above rather than through bars, particularly the glass tunnel through the penguin and seal pools. In the afternoon we drive south to Noboribetsu and walk through Jigokudani, an old crater venting sulphur steam through dozens of fissures. The night is spent at a ryokan with an onsen; the water here is high in sulphur and has the smell to match.
Day 5
The morning is at Lake Toya, an almost perfectly round caldera lake with Nakajima island in the centre and the still-steaming Showa-Shinzan volcano across the water. On the way back to Sapporo we stop at Upopoy in Shiraoi, the Ainu museum and park beside Lake Poroto, with thatched cise houses and performances on traditional instruments. We reach Sapporo in the early evening, free for shopping around JR Sapporo station and the Aurora Town underground mall.
Day 6
After checking out there is time at the airport for Shiroi Koibito biscuits, butter caramels and dried seafood. Your guide sees the group through check-in at New Chitose Airport for the flight back to Da Nang, where the programme ends.
Hokkaido is not like the rest of Japan: a big island, thinly populated, with straight roads and few traffic lights. That means more time on the coach than on a Tokyo–Osaka route, and in exchange, long stretches of road through farmland with no buildings in sight — something you rarely get in Japan.
We keep one ryokan night with an onsen in the itinerary. For many travellers this is their first public hot spring, so the tour leader goes through the rules before you go in: wash thoroughly before entering the water, never take a towel into the bath, and tell us in advance if you have tattoos so we can book somewhere that accommodates them.
Season matters more here than on most trips. The flowers at Biei and Furano peak between June and August; December to February is deep snow, with the Sapporo Snow Festival in early February. We prepare and submit the Japanese visa applications on your behalf; you supply a valid passport and the documents on a checklist we send in advance. Group size, accommodation standard and departure dates are fixed when the contract is signed.
Overseas ToursThe classic Korea route from Da Nang — Gyeongbokgung Palace, the tree-lined avenues of Nami Island, a full day at Everland and evenings in Myeongdong.
Overseas ToursSouthern Korea when the maples turn — Haeundae beach, the painted hillside of Gamcheon, the thousand-year-old Bulguksa temple and the old Silla capital at Gyeongju.
Overseas ToursEast to west across Japan — Senso-ji in Tokyo, Lake Kawaguchi beneath Mount Fuji, the torii gates of Fushimi Inari in Kyoto and Dotonbori after dark.