Hokkaido trip

We are a family of 4 including 2 kids aged 13 and 15 and are planning on a visit to hokkaido by self driving. We are going on the 15 june 2019 and returning back to Singapore on 23rd of june 2019. We will arrive 0n 15 june around 9am and leaving on 23 june around 8pm. We will rent a car from new Chitose airport.

We would like to seek some advice on our itinerary as this is our first visit to hokkaido. Our itinerary are as of below:

Day 1 - Arrive in the morning, drive from Chitose airport to noboribetsu

Day 2 - Noboribetsu to Lake toya

Day 3 - Lake toya to otaru

Day 4/5 - otaru to furano/biei

Day 6/7 - biei to Sapporo

Day 8 - Sapporo take train to airport

Would like to know if :

1) the above itinerary is too packed?

2) would be greatly appreciate if someone can advise us which expressway to go, any gas station or rest place along the expressway?

3)Any advise for best route of our itineraries for expressway conveniency/less time taken?

Thank you.

first of all you have 5 stops in 8 days- as far as expressways, etc there are maps available and you can get a gps when you rent a car. do you plan on coming to Hokkaido in the future? what will interest your teen age kids? driving in a car for most days may not be a desirable way to do a vacation. too much packing and unpacking. otaru can be done by train and i would eliminate noboribetsu unless everyone wants to experience on onsen.

I don�ft think you have to do onsen to enjoy Noboribetsu. Hell Valley was like nothing we had ever seen before and Noboribetsu ended up being one of our favorite stops of our winter trip last year, and we were only there for a few hours.

I recommend the following.

Day 1 - drive from Chitose airport to furano/biei.
Take Hokkaido Express Way(Douo Do) towards Eniwa-Chitose JCT, and take Doto
Express Way to Shimukappu IC. Shimukappu to furano takes one hour, total 2.5 hours.

Day 2/3 - biei to Sapporo
Take same Doto Express Way and Hokkaido Express Way(Douo Do) to Sapporo IC, or you may go to Otaru + 30 minutes.

Day 4- Sapporo and Otaru

Day 5 - day trip from sapporo to ex. Asahikawa.

Day 6/7 - Sapporo to Noboribetsu or Lake toya
I agree one location is enough to enjoy onsen.
Take Hokkaido Express Way(Douo Do) to Nobotibetsu or Toya IC.

Day 8 -from Noboribetsu or Lake toya to airport
Return Hokkaido Express Way(Douo Do) to Chitose IC.

Here is a map of expressway.
https://mobile.twitter.com/e_nexco_kita/status/808210716884774912/phot...

Some gas station and rest place are available along the expressway.

A look at the map to see where the city/towns are located, is highly recommended. Back tracking is a waste of time.
Group the places close to one city/town and use that as yr base instead of changing hotels every day.
Apart from Furanao, Biel, most places are reachable by train.

Not sure what people see in Lake Toya apart from the fact it�fs a body of water! !

I wonder about driving straight on arrival - good idea?

if in furano, then go to ashikawa (although aside from the zoo, i do not think it is worth a day) if Noboribetsu is on the itinerary, i always do it in a day rather than unpack, stay overnight etc so can do it from Sapporo as a day trip just like Otaru

We went to Lake Toya in June last year. It was very quiet and there weren't a lot of places open for dinner. They had fireworks every night at the time which was pretty good - at least 10-15 min that started on one side of the lake and finished at the other. There were a lot of chinese tourists there at the time as well.

We went to the Dai-ichii Takimotokan onsen in Noboribetsu and loved it. I am not a big onsen person but loved the multifloor, multi pool onsen (and outdoor onsen). Very professional setup. That was actually one of the highlights of our Hokkaido trip. I would recommend going to Noboribetsu for that. We also did some small hikes around the area with our 6 and 4 yr old kids. They loved the foot baths also (I think called Oyunuma foot baths)

I agree Otaru is maximum one day, the interesting part is quite small and the sites close together.

Noboribetsu is interesting because of Hell Valley and the walks through the forest, I enjoyed the onsen, we stayed at a Sekisui resort, in a tatami room, the bath area was huge and the food was good.

We got a pass for the toll roads, which was a good deal. Local roads can be really small and have very low speed limits.

Enjoy your trip!