car rental in hokkaido

We have 7 people travelling in Hokkaido in July, we want to go to Sapporo, then Otaru, Noboribetsu and Furano to see the lavender farms. Is it cheaper to go by rental car or 3-day JR pass and then rent a car for travelling in Furano? Can we rent a car/van to fit 7 people?

A rail pass won't pay off for your itinerary. It is cheaper to do it by single tickets. And even cheaper by highway bus (or a free shuttle bus between Sapporo and Noboribetsu, as offered by some hotels in Noboribetsu).

Last but not least, I think that a rental car could actually be the cheapest option, if there are 7 of you. Furthermore, a rental car is by far the most convenient means of transport to get around.

A mini van for 7 people should be available. If not, two smaller cars could still be quite economical.

By the way, are you planning to cover the four cities in just 3 days? That would not be recommended!

Thanks Uji, we are planning to travel 4 cities in a week to 10 days, I was just wondering if a mix of JR pass and driving would be cheaper (also a bit worried about not able to read the road signs in Japanese). But thanks for your advice, I think driving should be cheaper for 7 of us.

also a bit worried about not able to read the road signs in Japanese

All the important signs are in either internationally understandable symbols or bilingual (Japanese/English).

Is it advisible to use navigation system when renting cars in Hokkaido ?

While getting lost is sometimes more fun than getting where you were going I would choose the navigation system, since getting lost when you can't understand the roadsigns can lead to lengthy delays.

I am myself going to rent a car for 6 days in hokkaido in early june and as I recall the navigation system is a pretty low priced option. (at least for club tocoo)

And to add a question of my own. Does anyone know where I could find a table of driving distances in hokkaido on the net? It would help a lot in planning my trip to know how long I have to drive each day.

If you can read maps on mapion, you can use the nevigation system as it is basically in Japanese.

And July is a busy season for Furano and be ready to have long queues of cars lining up for the lavander farms.

If you want to look at a site for driving in Hokkaido in nglish you may be interested in the following one:

http://northern-road.jp/navi/eng/index.htm

Hello,
Can anybody advise me a rent-a-car office in hokkaido, having an english website or where a fax contact in English is possible ? Thanks

Club Tocoo offers the best car rental rates nationwide (which I am aware of) and provides an online reservation interface in English:
http://www.japan-guide.com/ad/coocom2.html

Does anyone has the email or fax number of tocoo so that I can do some enquires?

Thanks!

Hi!
I think Tocoo was discussed already several times, but it still isn't very clear for me...
If you make a simulation to see the price, is this the final price? Or is there some kind of commission or tax to add to it?
One more question, does anybody know the number of Kilometers from Kushiro to Sapporo, to calculate the dropp off charge?
Thanks!!

The nav system in our rental car, which we picked up in Sapporo, was in Japanese only. Not a problem since my wife is Japanese, but if you can't read kanji, it would be a big problem!

does anybody know the number of Kilometers from Kushiro to Sapporo, to calculate the dropp off charge?

About 348 kilometers by train. The linear distance between the two cities would be several kilometers shorter.