Chitose to Niseko via Tomakomai

Hi

I am heading up to Hokkaido for the snow festival early feb. Seeing that the place is booked out we thought we would go skiing first then see the festival on the last 2 days.
I arrive in Chitose on 5th of Feb at 5pm.

My plan is to travel to Niseko on the next day.

Q1. Seeing that accom is rare, I have found a room at Tomakomai - is this my best bet?

Q2. I'm having problems checking that there is decent transport from Tomakomai to Niseko. Can someone check http://www.donanbus.co.jp/ for me and tell me when the bus leaves and how much?

Q3. Is it better to go to Niseko from Tomakomai or should I hike north to another location?

Thanks heaps!

Brett-au

Seeing that accom is rare, I have found a room at Tomakomai - is this my best bet?

No. Unless maybe on the weekend, there should be rooms left in Sapporo. Tomakomai sounds awfully far away. If you give up on Sapporo, I would rather try Otaru as an alternative.

I'm having problems checking that there is decent transport from Tomakomai to Niseko.

See other thread. I recommend to travel via Chitose Airport.

Thanks, but with the snow festival starting the day after, everything is very solidly booked.

Tomakomai is 4 stops south of Chitose where as Sapporo is I think 8 stops. So even if one express and the other isn't I doubt it that far away. I could be wrong.

but with the snow festival starting the day after, everything is very solidly booked.

I assume you refer to February 4. I did a quick search for Sapporo hotels on February 4, and get loads of vacant rooms, even on English websites like the following:
http://travel.rakuten.co.jp/en/

In case you meant a different date, note that I was also able to find many vacancies for dates from February 5 through 9. As mentioned earlier, it is only the weekend during the festival, when finding vacant hotel rooms in Sapporo is a challenge.