A Spring Road Trip in Hokkaido

We went on a mission finding beautiful spring spots on a day trip from Sapporo, finding as many noteworthy local sakura and sightseeing spots.   Sakura are very precious and delicate things, often only lasting about 2 weeks and then they’re gone.  In this case, timing your trip for the sake of viewing the sakura can be a tough one, as the forecast can vary.  But when the timing is right it really pays off.

With that said, even with the right dates you’d still want to get around and see as many sakura and beautiful sights as you could – right?  Well, we found out that there are a lot of great spots for seeing sakura in Hokkaido that you can find all over the internet, but these are now super popular and therefore almost always packed full of people.  So we’ve gone and created a more local trip plan for you.

We did a day trip from Sapporo around central Hokkaido seeing some of the most beautiful local sakura and sightseeing spots that were just as beautiful (if not more) as the big popular parks, but completely empty! 

The drives are through it all – beautiful coastal, rural, city and farm drives (my favs were the vineyards in Yoichi) with mountainous views in the backdrop.  A spring road trip that will really make for a day to remember 🙂

Begin your day at Hokkaido University or a small park near here.  The uni sakura are generally vey spread out, but if you walk down the main road in the middle of it you’ll come across a few clusters of beautiful trees.  If you’d like to be fully immersed in sakura trees, or if you’re traveling with kids and want a space for the kids to play under the sakura trees then check the small local park near the uni out instead.

This shrine is a beautiful little reward for you as soon as you get off the highway.  Right on the main road, the red tori gate will pop out amongst the grey road and rural homes.  The shrine has a beautiful row of sakura trees that make this stop one of my favorite sakura spots of the entire road trip.

For an activity that isn’t sakura related, but a wonderful sightseeing spot in Hokkaido, I highly suggest visiting Cape Kamui.  It’s a beautiful cape – green and gold in the spring – and has a great display of some of the clear water that can be found here in Hokkaido.  It’s a very popular spot over summer so making it here during spring before those large crowds come in is a great idea.

This is another very small shrine area with a marked entrance of a few red tori gates to welcome you.  Once you enter you’ll see some beautiful large sakura and other beautiful trees to invite you all the way to the shrine itself.  This one can be found on your way to Iwanai from Cape Kamui – keep your eyes peeled!

A gravel road about 500m long, lined on one side with large and high sakura trees.  Close to the main highway roads going from Iwanai to Niseko, it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, but that only adds to the beauty of it.

Such a great photo spot 🙂

The small flowers here don’t actually match up with the cherry blossoms in the area, so although this area will be open over spring, the flowers won’t yet be blossoming.  This still makes for a gorgeous viewing spot of Mt. Yotei though, so worth the stop!

If you’d prefer to see these blooming instead then check in here Late May/early June instead (or as well 😉 )

This park is relatively new so the trees are still on the smaller side however, it gives an incredible view of Mt. Yotei!  On a windless day the still pond makes for some beautiful reflective photos of Yotei-san.

This is an awesome one to see in person and just a great way to finish the day.  Rows of beautiful large sakura trees are perfectly arranged on this park, making it feel like you’re really inside a pink dreamland.  A small creek sits below the park as well, adding to that fairytale vibe.

We hope that you enjoy this road trip and get to see these spots in great weather conditions, and with the sakura at their peak.  The sakura forecast obviously changes every year, but to get a gauge on sakura timings we had in 2020, ALL of the images in this article were taken May 2nd or May 8th.  I’d say that we were actually maybe a few days passed the peak of their bloom cycle, but it was still beautiful nonetheless!

If you’d like help hiring a vehicle to do this trip then we can help you out, or if you’d like a guide to take all the difficult parts out of the trip then get in touch with us 🙂

Let us know any other things that you came across on this road trip in the comments!

All photo cred to: @tttproductionss