Base for exploring hokkaido

We are traveling to hokkaido at the end of May and will be staying for 5 nights. I was thinking of having a base closer to the north for 3 nights and then one closer to new chitose airport for the last 2. We will be driving. I was thinking maybe furano or asahikawa for the 1st base and Sapporo for the 2nd base

This place seems to be very nice.

http://biei-eori.com
https://www.jhpds.net/eori/uw/uwp3100/uww3101.do?yadNo=364906

Furano and Sapporo are good bases, but it depends where exactly you want to go. Hokkaido is very large. So if you want to go to Shiretoko, Abashiri, Wakkanai, Hakodate or places in the far East these bases will not work.

In Furano area as you have a car I would advise to stay in a more rural part. The cities aren�ft anything special there. The attraction is the countryside.

Enjoy your trip to Hokkaido!

LikeBike,

We wanted to see daisetsuzan national park the lavender fields, blue pond. Are there any other places that you would recommend?

We did a driving tour around Hokkaido in September 2017, flew into New Chitose, had a night in each of Asahikawa, Biei, Noboribetsu and Otaru, left the car in Sapporo and had two nights there and then trained to Hakodate and had two nights there. We didn't feel rushed and saw the sights you mentioned, plus Mt Toya, the Noboribetsu thermal ponds, and that part of Hokkaido generally. Hokkaido is big but the motorways are amazing and with the ECT card quite affordable. Love the motorway rest stops!

Neither of us loved Otaru, which was a shame because on paper there's a lot to like.

If you decide on driving out from a base, Asahikawa is a biggish town, with lots of places to eat. Depending on the time you want to spend at Daisetsuzan National Park you might want to stay in Biei, as it is way closer. We stayed in an onsen hotel in Biei, (Park Hills) and there isn't much in town other than a few onsen hotels. We loved it as we hadn't stayed in onsen hotels before and enjoyed the meals in the dining room: both the food and watching the crowd! We used an excellent local travel agent-as we hadn't done a drive in Japan before-and they were great with suggestions etc and the price was very reasonable.

Enjoy Hokkaido!

Returning to base daily would , IMO, be a waste of time, especially if you are renting a car. You could easily plan a " circle trip" staring from the New Chitose airport?

"Starting " not staring. Sorry.