Help with Hokkaido hotels
 

We are hoping to spend one week touring Hokkaido, visiting some of the national parks (Shikotsu-Toya, Daisetsu-zan and Akan) but I'm having difficulty finding accommodation information for this part of Japan. We would prefer western-style rooms (though we will try the Japanese experience at some point!) and are looking at a budget of about $180 per room per night with meals extra. Can anyone help with suggestions of places to stay ? We will arrive at Chitose airport on August 10th and intend to rent a car.

I think it is going to be quite busy when you are there with vacationers escaping the heat from down south.

I spent a couple of nights at the Hilton in Otaru which is a city on the coast just north of Sapporo. Nice enough hotel with a great breakfast buffet. The hotel is on top of a shopping center, but it is away from Otaru downtown. Otaru is probably not on your itinerary, and that is ok. The town boosters really over-hyped the value of their tourist sites.

At Noboribetsu Onsen, which is south and a bit west from New Chitose Airport, I stayed at Hanaya Ryokan. My room had twin western beds. Nice place to stay but a bit of a walk uphill to the onsen town. You really ought to visit the Daiichi Takimotokan hotel to enjoy their onsen baths. Even if you don't stay at the hotel, you should try their bath.

Somebody on this forum posted a good report about a ryokan in Noboribetsu. IIRC the ryokan is at the edge of town, just before the road winds its way uphill and on towards S-T NP and Toya-ko.

Elsewhere in Hokkaido, I stayed at a business hotel in front of JR Hakodate Station.

Take a look at the PDFs for Hokkaido at this link:
http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/RTG/PTG/index.html

other lodging links:
http://www.jpinn.com/
http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/maps/hokkaido.htm
http://www.itcj.or.jp/

Hi Gaynor,
Just a few ideas here...in a week.
From Chitose airport Shikotsu/Toya is in the opposite direction to Daisetsu and Akan - so maybe choosing ONE of the directions would be better!
You cold save a lot of driving time too by flying into Asahikawa or Kushiro.
I'd suggest Sounkyo for the first night, Akan for the second and on to Abashiri for the third.Then out to Utoro and the Shiretoko Peninsula - just a new World Heritage area etc. Then back via Furano to Sapporo/Otaru etc
BUt the other poster is right - August 10th will be right in the middle of holiday season and every rental car in Hokkiado will be doing the same route!
Check out the 17th issue of Fodor's Japan for the latest updated info I wrote...nice places to stay in Sounkyo and Akan in particular.
Amanda

Thank you both for your helpful advice. Unfortunately, our travel is restricted to the UK school holidays because we are both teachers. Our intention is to include Japan on a RTW Star Alliance ticket. We would fly out on 22nd July, spend a few days in Las Vegas, fly to Kaui via Honolulu then on to Japan (arriving 3rd August, though we could cut Vegas and arrive a few days earlier). Our original intention had been to spend just a few days in Japan as a stopover, but having bought several travel guides (Fodor's 17th included, Amanda!) we realised that Japan seemed to be an amazingly diverse place and decided to extend our stay. Hokkaido appealed to us because we prefer rural areas to cities and enjoy driving ourselves rather than organised tours. When we discovered that snokelling was possible in Okinawa we decided to include that too, because it's something we really enjoy. At the moment the itinerary looks like this : arrive at Narita 3rd August, 2 nights in Tokyo, fly from Haneda to Okinawa, 5 nights at a resort hotel, fly to Chitose (via Fukuoka)on 10th (price of hotels in Okinawa doubles on 11th) and spend a week touring Hokkaido before flying on to Jo'burg via Singapore. We have not finalised these arrangements yet and are open to suggestions. We are beginning to feel that Hokkaido is not such a good idea for the reasons that you have given, plus the fact that we cannot find many hotels with web sites in Hokkaido other than in the Sapporo and Hakodate areas. Also, car rental companies don't seem to let you book more than 3 months in advance. This is proving to be our most challenging trip yet ! Should we cut Hokkaido from the trip and leave Japan on 10th or do you have any other ideas that might work for us ? We want to maximise the use of the air ticket rather than going to the additional expense of a rail pass, prefer countryside to cities and enjoy driving and discovering things for ourselves.

I'd really appreciate any advice.

Thanks,

Gaynor

I understand that you like to drive on vacation, but I have to point out that a rail pass would not be an "additional expense". It would be a substitute for the car and gas (and possibly less expensive if you are two).

You could fly from Haneda to Kagoshima and drive around central Kyushu. Or fly to Nagasaki to visit there and drive to Shimabara and Unzen and western Kyushu. End your drive in Fukuoka and then fly to Okinawa from there.

I'd be inclined to skip Okinawa instead of skipping Hokkaido. You ought to check on the weather in Okinawa (and Kyushu for that matter) in mid-August.

You could connect at Narita airport to fly to Sapporo and several other Japanese cities. ANA network maps are here:
http://www.anaskyweb.com/us/e/travel...ork/index.html

Asiana has flights from several Japanese cities to Seoul and maybe even a couple of flights to Pusan.

Thanks for your advice,mrwunrfl. I will do some more research on the areas that you suggest - I thought that you might suggest keeping Hokkaido in preference to Okinawa (it was a relaxing interlude in what seems to becoming a pretty busy part of the holiday that attracted us to that). I found a brief reference to the typhoon season in the LP guide - is that the weather problem that you are referring too ?

We had not thought about Korea and know even less about there than Japan, so perhaps I'll invest in another guide book !

Thanks again for your help.

Gaynor

Yes, I was wondering about typhoons there & then. And/or heat & humidity.

Or keep Okinawa. Your plan of Tokyo- Okinawa- Hokkaido- Singapore is about as inefficient as possible.

You have lots of options. Visit the Great Wall. Or have a "relaxing interlude" in Bali.

Hi Gaynor,

Glad to hear you bought "the book"...!!
Yes! of course I vote for coming to Hokkaido - and a car is a must here.

If you give me the dates etc I can book a car for you...but the 3 month rule is a usual here.

I'd really advise flying into Asahikawa, renting the car and then:

Two nights in the Daisetsu National Park - the Youth Hostel or Yamanoue Hotel at Sounkyou are great and the hiking and rental biking in the area are wonderful.(about1.30 from Asahikawa Airprt)
One night at Akan Lake
One or two nights at Utoro to be close to the Shiretoko Park...let me check some hotel info...we didn't get it into the Guide last year...
Back to Asahikawa.

This would be a relaxing schedule with not too much driving and time for hiking and relaxing....

amanda

Hi Gaynor,

ok..I've hunted around for you - here are some English sites.

HOtels in Uturo (Shiretoko Peninsular)

www.shiretoko.co.jp/
www.shiretoko-1.knc.ne.jp/
www.iruka-hotel.com/jp/iruka_top.shtml

The iruka sounds and looks great, and I've heard it is good too - but I think it is a little out of town (not a bad thing with a Japanese tour in the school holidays!) - so maybe only good for people with a car.

lastly - the owner of the Yamanoue Guest House in Sounkyo (Daisetstu) has obviously had some English speaking help - he now has a nice website in English
www.p-yamanoue.com/
You can't book a room via the English site, but the fax number for English reservations is
(81) 1658-5-3207

They have GREAT home madewines made from mountain veggies and are right in the village center..

let me know if I can help more...the car booking would be no problem...

amanda