Hokkaido travel guide: winter or summer, which route and budget

The island capital, Japan's fifth city, is walkable: Odori Park, the clock tower, the Nijo market. In February, the Snow Festival lines up monumental sculptures over 1.5 km. An hour away, Mount Moiwa offers a night view, and the Okurayama ski jump can be visited. Allow two days, plus an evening for soup curry and miso ramen, two local inventions you will not find on menus in Kanto. The Susukino district, the largest nightlife area north of Tokyo, and the nearby crab market extend the evening.

Forty minutes by train from Sapporo, Otaru was a prosperous trading port until the 1920s. Its canal lined with stone warehouses lights up with gas lamps at dusk. Sakaimachi street packs in blown-glass workshops, music boxes and sushi counters. Further north, the Shakotan peninsula, its cliffs and deep colour known as Shakotan blue, is visited in summer along the coast road. The music box museum and the Otaru beer brewery round off a half-day; in December, the canal light festival lines the water with floating candles.

The centre of the island is a chessboard of fields. In Furano, flower farms such as Farm Tomita peak with lavender in July. In Biei, the patchwork hills road and the Blue Pond of Shirogane, tinted by minerals, are photographed at daybreak before the coaches. Outside July and August, aim for the late-September foliage. A car is all but essential to link the scattered viewpoints. The scenic Furano-Biei Norokko train runs in summer between the two towns and stops at a temporary station opened for the season, right by the fields.

Japan's largest national park, Daisetsuzan peaks at Asahidake, 2,291 m. A ropeway climbs to 1,600 m, the start of a 90-minute walking loop between fumaroles and mountain pools. Autumn foliage begins around mid-September here, the earliest in the country. The Sounkyo gorges and their waterfalls, plus the hot springs of the same name, round off the stop. Snow is possible on the trails until late June.

The south lines up the crater lakes of Toya, with fireworks every evening from April to October, and Noboribetsu, the island's most famous hot-spring resort, whose Hell Valley spews sulphur and steam. Hakodate, the first port opened to foreigners in 1859, offers a famous night view from its mountain, a morning seafood market and a star-shaped fort, Goryokaku, pink with cherry blossom in early May. Between the two, Mount Yotei, an almost perfect cone nicknamed the Fuji of Ezo, dominates the Niseko area and is climbed in one long summer day.

The east takes time and a car. The Shiretoko peninsula, a UNESCO site, is followed by boat to see brown bears and waterfalls dropping into the sea; in February and March, drift ice reaches Abashiri. The Akan park and its lakes shelter the marimo algae balls. The Kushiro marshes are the main refuge of the Japanese crane, visible all year but spectacular dancing on the snow in January.

In the west, Niseko gets one of the heaviest powder-snow accumulations in the world each winter, about 14 m per season, which has made it a high-priced international resort. Rusutsu, Furano and Kiroro, less known, offer comparable snow for less. The season runs from December to early April; spring skiing under a higher sun goes on until Golden Week. Book accommodation for the January and February peak up to a year ahead, especially in Niseko itself.