{"id":6101,"date":"2018-06-09T19:27:00","date_gmt":"2018-06-09T09:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/?p=6101"},"modified":"2018-06-11T17:10:01","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T07:10:01","slug":"autumn-6-day-hokkaido-central-and-eastern-road-trip-itinerary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stillaslife.com\/autumn-6-day-hokkaido-central-and-eastern-road-trip-itinerary\/","title":{"rendered":"Autumn 6-Day Hokkaido Central and Eastern Road Trip Itinerary"},"content":{"rendered":"

In August last year, we spent six days road tripping around the Northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido<\/a> inAutumn. Our trip started and ended at the New Chitose Airport, and was focused around the Central and Eastern regions of the island plus the capital, Sapporo<\/a>. If you are thinking about spending some time exploring Hokkaido<\/a>, don’t hesitate. You will find some stunning scenery, and in Autumn, you will be treated to flowers from all colours of the rainbow plus, there is a good possibility you will spot some wild deer with their fawns and potentially even bears (you’ll definitely see them if you follow this itinerary). I can guarantee that even on a rainy day, you will find something amazing.<\/p>\n

\"Shirogane<\/a>
Shirogane Blue Pond is one of the gems you will find in this itinerary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One thing to be aware of when planning a trip here is that while Hokkaido<\/a> is not a huge place, it’s easy to be tricked into thinking\u00a0you can get around the island quickly by road. Typically, the expressway speed limit is only 70km\/h and the speed limits on other roads are 50km\/h, so it’s not a quick trip. These speed limits are based on Winter conditions where the island is covered in snow and ice, but the limits remain the same all year round and it is tempting to go faster when you are driving there at other times but beware of police speed traps. So, that said, you can’t actually get around as quickly as you might think you can, especially given much of the expressways are also only single lane roads with limited places to overtake other vehicles.<\/p>\n

Don’t worry about that though, just enjoy the trip, you can see so many amazing sights when you explore this unique island in a car. I will note though that in this itinerary we rarely dined at restaurants. Most of our meals were hotel breakfasts followed by instant food from convenience stores that we could easily eat while driving. Fortunately, I love maki rolls, so they made a quick, cheap, easy meal! I’m talking the equivalent of AUD $1-$2 per meal. One other thing to note is that this is a road trip, so this itinerary and times are based on having a car that you can drive yourself in. This trip would be much more difficult and require more time to do via public transport.<\/p>\n

Just before I jump into it, I’ll also note that we booked this itinerary about two weeks before we went, and it turned out that the first weekend overlapped with Obon Festival (August 13-15), which meant accommodation was hard to find and expensive. We wanted to see the festival since we arrived on the 13th but sadly nothing happened in Sapporo<\/a> at Odori Park even though it was advertised there would be.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer:<\/h3>\n

This article is all our own experience. Everything we did was paid for by us, and no part of it was free or subsidised. That said, some of the links in this article are affiliate links, which means that I get a small commission if you click it and make a booking or purchase. I hope that you\u2019ll use these links anytime you need to book a place to stay or activity! These small commissions help me to keep travelling so I can write and film more travel guides for you. I would never recommend anything I don\u2019t or would not personally use!<\/em><\/p>\n

Anyway, enough of that, into the itinerary! We stayed at Tokyo<\/a> Narita airport the night before (at the Toyoko Inn Kuko<\/a>) we arrived in Sapporo<\/a>, so our flight landed at New Chitose Airport at midday.<\/p>\n

Map Overview<\/h2>\n

Expand the map to enable and disable each day.<\/p>\n