6D5N trip from Singapore to Hokkaido

Hi, we are planning a trip for 5adults and 1child from 30 Aug to 4 Sept 2017. We are departing from Singapore to Haneda and wishes to make a trip to Hokkaido. We hope to visit Sapporo, Niseko, Furano, Lake Toya, Hakodate and Otaru and any places of interest that can fit our itinerary.

Could you kindly advise if there are any special fares for 2 way domestic flight to the most suitable airport in Hokkaido to start our trip?

Would it be better for us to self drive or use public transport?

It would be awesome if we could have a completed itinerary for all our mentioned stops including the transport needed as this is the first time trip for all of us. We plan to start each day around 11am and staying in several hotels along the way is alright as well.

Many thanks in advance!

For Sapporo, Niseko, Furano, Lake Toya, Hakodate, and Otaru, there could be four gateway airports, namely AKJ, OKD, CTS, and HKD. Most competing prices are about 40k JPY for SIN-CTS-SIN, including ones by Scoot.

If you dare to do those destinations in such a short trip, you should follow one of the shortest chains, such as Furano - Otaru - Sapporo - Niseko - Lake Toya - Hakodate. The most suitable airports are AKJ and HKD in this case; AKJ - Furano - Sapporo - Otaru - Niseko - Lake Toya - Hakodate - HKD. This would cost about 70k JPY for SIN-AKJ/HKD-SIN.

The above cases do not include Haneda. If you need to include Haneda, see the followings.
https://www.ana.co.jp/wws/es/e/wws_common/promotions/share/experience_...
https://www.world.jal.com/world/en/japan_explorer_pass/sg/
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2364.html

Here is a sample itinerary assuming 11 AM starts from and to Haneda.

D1: Aug 30 W
HND 1220-1340 HKD, ANA 555
(Car 1440-1504) / (o Bus 1441-1511) Hakodate
http://www.hakobus.co.jp/pdf/96_flyer.pdf?20170419
Hakodate(3H)
1814 Sunset
D2: Aug 31 T
1100 Hakodate(1H)
(o Car 1200-1430) / (JR 1206-1408 JR Toya/Bus 1420-1440) Lake Toya
http://donanbus.co.jp/kougai/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/11/%E9%83...
Lake Toya(3H)
1813 Sunset
D3: Sep 01 F
1100 Lake Toya(1H)
(o Car 1200-1250) / (Bus 1210-1248 Rusutsu/Bus 1520-1546) Niseko
http://donanbus.co.jp/kougai/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/11/%E9%83...
http://donanbus.co.jp/kougai/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2013/11/%E9%83...
Niseko(5H)
1812 Sunset
D4: Sep 02 S
(Car 1100-1240) / (o JR 1112-1308) Otaru
Otaru(4H)
(Car 1700-1820) / (o Bus 1702-1800) Sapporo
1808 Sunset
D5: Sep 03 S
1100 Sapporo(4H)
(Car 1500-1720) / (o Bus 1541-1807) / (JR 1553-1755) Furano
http://www.chuo-bus.co.jp/highway/index.cgi?ope=det&n=9&o=1&t=173
Sunset 1803
D6: Sep 04 M
1100 Furano(3.5H)
(o Car 1430-1530) / (Bus 1435-1535) AKJ
http://www.furanobus.jp/lavender/
AKJ 1625-1810 HND JAL 556

Needed times by self-drives and by public transports are almost the same, except the portion of Lake Toya - Niseko. Generally, the former is better in country sides while the latter in cities.

The followings are possible choices between these.

D1/Bus: Hakodate, no need for a car for half a day. Yonokawa Onsen might be considered.
D2/Car: Car would be better to go around Lake Toya and Mt. Usu. Onuma Park could be stopped by between Hakodate and Lake Toya.
http://onumakouen.com/en/
https://www.env.go.jp/en/nature/nps/park/shikotsu/guide/view.html
https://www.env.go.jp/park/common/data/06_shikotsu_map_e.pdf
D3/Car: Rusutsu Resort is between Lake Toya and Niseko.
http://www.hokkaido-rusutsu.com/
D4/JR: Otaru could be done without a car. JR trains run just along the seaside between Otaru and Sapporo.
D5/Bus: Same for Sapporo. JR might need a transfer.
D6/Car: Car for Furano and Biei, maybe with Bogakudai Observatory or Mt. Asahidake.
https://www.env.go.jp/en/nature/nps/park/daisetsu/guide/view.html
https://www.env.go.jp/park/common/data/05_daisetsu_map_e.pdf

http://hakodate-yunokawa.jp/lan/en.html

Hi Luis, thank you so much for the information! It is very useful and I am really amazed by your details. After what you have shown me, I find that it is really too ambitious of me to plan so many places in the few days. Would you recommend that I should just go to 3 places like perhaps Hakodate, Otaru and Sapporo? When I saw this link that you have provided http://hakodate-yunokawa.jp/lan/en.html , i realise that I will probably spend like 2days in Hakodate alone and that would be wiser for me to do the same for Otaru and Sapporo. This will probably be more suitable for me as I am the only navigator and I am bringing a child and 2 old folks. Base on the above, should I still start off at HKD? I will be travelling from Singapore to Haneda and Haneda back to Singapore.

I sometimes assign a kind of star ranks to itineraries. The number of stars is to be the number of nights divided by the number of destinations. So, in your case of 5N,
One-star itineraries: Number of detinations is 5(, 4, or 3)
Two-star itineraries: Number of detinations is 2
Three-star itineraries: Number of destination is 1
Your last one was no star, but if you choose a set of Hakodate, Otaru, and Sapporo, that would be nearly two stars.

Now start to create a plan. Google Maps say
Sapporo - Otaru, Car/0:40-1:15, Bus/0:58
Sapporo - Hakodate, Car/3:50-5:00, JR/4:09-4:14
Hakodate - Otaru, Car/3:50-5:10, JR/4:52-5:15

Hakodate is far from Sapporo and Otaru. JAL and ANA provide campaign flights to Hakodate with 5k+ JPY. CTS is notorious its business. It would be better to use CTS for an arriving airport. JR runs a direct train from CTS to Otaru. For the flight to Hakodate, use OKD near Sapporo. So, the backbone should be
HND - CTS - Otaru - Sapporo - OKD - HKD - Hakodate - HKD - HND.

Then, here is an example. I just choose a bus from Otaru to Sapporo, to avoid a simple repeat use of JR. The resulting Otaru(10h), Sapporo(13h), and Hakodate(12h) look reasonable.

Aug 30 W
HND 1100-1235 CTS, ANA 61
CTS 1300-1415 Otaru, JR
Otaru 1415-1815(4h)
1815 Sunset
Aug 31 T
Otaru 1100-1715(6h)
Otaru 1715-1817 Sapporo, Hokkaido Chuo Bus
1812 Sunset
Sep 01 F
Sapporo 1100-1810(7h)
1810 Sunset
Sep 02 S
Sapporo 1100-1730(6h)
OKD 1730-1810 HKD, JAL 2755
1808 Sunset
Sep 03 S
Hakodate 1100-1808(7h)
1808 Sunset
Sep 04 M
Hakodate 1100-1640(5h)
HKD 1640-1805 HND, ANA 4760
1804 Sunset

The above is more like on a textbook, so here is another one. You could drop Otaru to preserve a time for Sapporo.

Aug 30 HND 1100-1235 CTS 1400-1540 Jozankei
Aug 31 Jozankei 1700-1808 Sapporo
Sep 01 Sapporo 1113-1145 Otaru 1740-1820 Sapporo
Sep 02 OKD 1730-1810 HKD
Sep 03 Hakodate
Sep 04 HKD 1640-1805 HND

http://jozankei.jp/en/
http://www.sapporo.travel/find/?lang=en
http://www.sta.or.jp/english/
http://otaru.gr.jp.e.go.hp.transer.com/

September 2nd - September 3rd: Otaru animation party
September 3rd: Otaru Shukutsu fireworks display

There will be some events in Otaru. If you are interested in, modify the itinerary for those.

http://otaru.gr.jp.e.go.hp.transer.com/fall