Hokkaido Winter Tours with the Drift Ice

Prices, Lengths and What Is Included

The table compares the tours compared here on price, length, start city, the boat in the price and what you pay on top, taken from each tour's own listing. Prices are as listed, per person unless marked per group.

Group Size and Who Rides

Each tour is private for up to 6 people in one van, with an English-speaking driver-guide. Hindi and Urdu are also offered. Both Kushiro tours are priced per person, so a couple pays twice the listed figure.

The Sapporo tour is one price per group up to 6, which favours a full van.

The Ice Sets the Dates

The Aurora operator gives its season as January 20 to March 31, with ice most often seen from mid-February to early March. It also warns that warming has delayed and reduced the ice, so past patterns may not hold. JNTO gives a wider window along the Okhotsk coast, from mid-January to late March.

The Rausu eagle trip runs February to mid-March only. The crane tour and the 7-day loop run January to March. Book a tour for the second half of February if the ice is the point of the trip.

Festivals and the Snow

The 7-day loop passes the Sounkyo Ice Fall Festival in season. The Sapporo Snow Festival draws crowds to the city in February, so Sapporo hotels fill early. Drift ice walks at Utoro, in a dry suit, run from early February to mid-March, last 90 minutes and start from ¥6,000, per JNTO.

Four Days From Kushiro

Both 4-day tours start and end in Kushiro, with 3 nights in hotels you book. The crane tour spends Day 3 in Abashiri with the cruise, the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum and Notoro Cape. The eagle trip spends Day 2 at Rausu port for the boat, then Day 3 in Utoro.

Four days is the shortest way to see both cranes and drift ice with someone else driving.

Seven Days From Sapporo

The 7-day loop has 6 nights. It spends two nights in Abashiri, which gives a spare morning if the ice or the sea shuts the first sailing. The cost of that slack is the price, $11,142 per group, with the Aurora paid on top.

Cranes and Drift Ice, Four Days

Day 1 covers the Akan International Crane Center and the Hosooka Observatory. Day 2 starts at dawn on Otowa Bridge, then Tsurui Ito Tancho Sanctuary, Lake Mashu, Mt Io and Lake Kussharo. Day 3 is Abashiri: the drift ice cruise, the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum and Notoro Cape.

Day 4 crosses frozen Lake Akan and Akanko Ainu Kotan back to Kushiro. The listing warns it can be minus 20 C at dawn.

Eagles at Rausu, Four Days

Day 1 visits Tsurui Ito Tancho Sanctuary, Otowa Bridge and Shibetsu. Day 2 starts early at Rausu port for the eagle-watching boat, then the Notsuke Peninsula and the Shiretoko Rausu Visitor Center. Day 3 goes to Utoro by Oshinkoshin Falls.

Day 4 returns by Mt Io, Lake Mashu and Lake Kussharo.

The Whole Island, Seven Days

Pickup is at about 08:30 from a central Sapporo hotel. The route runs Otaru, Niseko, Lake Toya, Noboribetsu, Asahikawa and Sounkyo, then two nights in Abashiri with the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum and the Abashiri Prison Museum, then Utoro, Biei and back to Sapporo. Four lunches are in the price.

What Each Price Covers

The crane tour includes the van, fuel, tolls, parking, bottled water, the drift ice cruise ticket, the crane centre entry and the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum entry. The eagle trip includes the van and the Rausu eagle-watching boat. The 7-day loop includes the van, four lunches, a glass making class in Otaru and entry to the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum and the Abashiri Prison Museum.

What You Pay On Top

On all three you book your own hotel every night and pay flights or trains to the start city. On the 7-day loop the Aurora cruise is optional and paid separately, along with an optional donation at the Sounkyo Ice Fall Festival. The Aurora operator lists the large ship adult fare at ¥7,000 and the elementary school fare at ¥3,500.

Drift ice walks are extra on the eagle trip.

The Ship and the Tours

The Aurora operator says ice is never guaranteed and can change within hours. Without ice the large ship runs a sea tour to Notoro Cape and the small ship Aurora 3 is cancelled. The crane tour's listing says the cruise still runs along the coast on days without ice.

On the eagle trip the captain can cancel in storms, and the guide then drives to other eagle viewpoints. On the 7-day loop a closed road to Abashiri means a similar place nearby instead.

Who Each Tour Suits

The crane tour suits a first winter visit from Kushiro that must include the Aurora. The eagle trip suits photographers, with a zoom lens and binoculars advised by the listing, who care more about Steller's sea eagles than the icebreaker. The 7-day loop suits a full van of up to 6 who want the whole island and do not mind adding the Aurora themselves.

Skip all three if you have one day. The Abashiri drift ice cruise on its own, reached by bus from Memanbetsu Airport, costs far less than a private van. See Abashiri tours for day options and the drift ice tour from Sapporo for coach trips.