Hokkaido by train in summer: Hakodate, Niseko, Otaru and Sapporo

The trip, leg by leg

1. 1 · Day trainMaedaAkihiko, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsGranClass

   GranClass on the Hayabusa, with an attendant and a light meal, from Tokyo to Shin-Hakodate-Hokuto in about four hours; the Hakodate Liner reaches Hakodate station in about 20 minutes, and the hotel is 10 minutes on by car.

2. 2 · 2 nightsHotel Biaclyn Hakodate

   Six suites in the former Russian consulate of 1908 at the top of Saiwaizaka, each with its own sauna, for the churches and sloping streets of Motomachi, the morning market and the night view from Mount Hakodate; French at Biacya one night and Ezo-mae sushi at the eight-seat counter the other.

3. 3 · 3 nightsZaborin

   North on the Hakodate line: the Hokuto to Oshamambe and the local train along the foot of Mount Yotei to Kutchan, about four hours with the change, where the ryokan collects you. Fifteen villas in the birch woods of Hanazono, each with an indoor bath and an open-air one fed by its own spring, and the only two MICHELIN Keys in Niseko, for walking and cycling below Yotei and kita kaiseki from Hokkaido's farms and seas. For a hotel rather than a ryokan, two in the same valley: Higashiyama Niseko Village, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, at the foot of the Niseko Village lifts, or the Park Hyatt at Hanazono, with the Hanazono lifts at its door; we choose between the three with you.

4. Otaru
   4 · 1 nightOtaru

   From Kutchan the local train follows the Shiribetsu valley to Otaru in about an hour and a quarter. One night in the old herring port for the canal and its stone warehouses at dusk, the sushi street and the glassworks. We choose the hotel with you once we know your dates.

5. Sapporo
   5 · 3 nightsSapporo

   Thirty-five minutes on the rapid train along Ishikari Bay. Three nights in the island's capital for the beer hall, Nijo market, Isamu Noguchi's Moerenuma park and dinner from Hokkaido's farms and seas; we choose the hotel with you. New Chitose airport is about 40 minutes by rapid train from Sapporo station, with flights to Tokyo and abroad.