Urgent: Transportation for sightseeing in Hokkaido?
 

I'm going to Hokkaido this month for 5-6 days. I want to go to famous tourist spots such as, Sapporo, Akan, Asahikawa, Furano, Shiretoko etc.

1) I was wondering if it's ok to only travel by train? Are the train stations close to the exact tourist spots? Is it necessary to hire cars? Because I don't know much about other transportations other than trains in Hokkaido and I don't drive.

2) And if I only stay in one hotel (probably in Sapporo), is it convient to travel to all those tourist spots?


Thanks in advance :)

Hokkaido is huge. If you base yourself in Sapporo, you won't be able to go to Akan or Shiretoko on a day-trip because it takes about 6 hours one way to go from Sapporo to either of those two places by train. You may want to consider spending 2-3 days in that area without commuting from Sapporo.

You can do Asahikawa and Furano on a day-trip, but I assure you there isn't much to see in Asashikawa.

For a great day-trip from Sapporo, I recommend Otaru.

Thanks a lot!!:eek:

So, under your helpful advices, I've picked out a few destinations (base on living in a hotel in Sapporo): Otaru, Jozankei, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu, Hakodate and Furano. Are these places all within reasonable distant to Sapporo? And are they nice tourist spots for a 5-6 days trip? Thanks soo much!

All those places are easily accesible from Sapporo. Hakodate is 3 hours away so it could get you a little tired. But the train ride between Hakodate and Sapporo (2/3 of it on the Hakodate side) is spectacular, with the Pacific Ocean on one side and the mountains on the other.

Dig deep and rent-a-car. It's just so worth it.

I have been to Hokkaido once. I spent 6 days, visiting almost all the tourist spot location all around Hokkaido (Sapporo, Furano, Otaru and Hakodate)

(1) i can say that almost all the famous spot is accessible by train and bus. I use JR east 5 days ticket. So i saved a lot on my expenses.

(2) During our visit to Hokkaido, we only stayed at one youth hostel in sapporo. Everyday we went to other city and back to Sapporo to sleep..except our last city, Hakodate, since we are on our way back to Tokyo.

Read more about my my experience here