Things to do in Lake Shikotsu

The itinerary was incredibly rich: it included Lake Shikotsu, Lake Toya, Showa-shinzan Bear Park, Lake Hill Farm, and a boat cruise to watch fireworks. Our guide, Hikaru, was very competent, and the schedule was well-arranged. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't ideal, with clouds and light rain that day, but we still had a fantastic time. Highly recommended.

It was a trip where I truly experienced the magnificent nature of Hokkaido! Our guide, Hikaru, provided detailed explanations and even shared some funny jokes, making sure there was never a dull moment. Thank you for making this such an enjoyable trip!

Our guide, Alex, was great and helped to take photos of many of us. He also shared bits and pieces of information about the attractions we went to in English and Chinese. The timings allocated for each attraction was also just nice. For those without transport, this was worth the money.

I recently took this one-day tour to Lake Toya and Lake Shikotsu, and it was absolutely worth the money. It is a very well-paced itinerary that allowed us to see several of Hokkaido’s most beautiful natural landmarks within a single day without feeling overly rushed. Our guide, Xixi, was fantastic. She was incredibly knowledgeable and went above and beyond to make the trip memorable. Not only did she provide great commentary on the sights we visited, but she also shared a wealth of "insider" recommendations for other locations to visit in Hokkaido and pointed us toward the "best in category" restaurants for local food.

Our tour guide, Ella, was very professional in her explanations and helped us purchase tickets. Her time management was excellent, allowing us to visit sites efficiently. I give her five stars. My main concern was that the mini-bus drove extremely fast. It was the fastest I've experienced in Japan (we didn't even take the highway on this trip). Combined with numerous potholes and hairpin turns, the vehicle often vibrated. On the return night drive, I was frequently worried about the speed affecting our safety. Perhaps the packed itinerary meant the driver had to rush. As other reviews have mentioned, the bear farm isn't a necessary stop. Also, the Lake Toya fireworks were very small and lacked music. If you've seen other artistic fireworks displays in Japan, you might not need to include the Lake Toya fireworks on your viewing list.

Everything is excellent in general from transportation perspective, Wei (our driver) was great. Our tour day was cloudy so Mt. Yotei was not seen clearly. The schedule was packed with limited time to tour around if you have any elders with you. When we get to Lake Toya, most of the restaurants were closed, not sure why. We couldn’t get in to one of the opened restaurants because they were closing as well or they just didn’t want to service a group of 6. Everyone were flocked to close by 7 Eleven. Fireworks were acceptable as they repeated the same pattern from the left end and slowly move to the right end. If you don’t take the boat, then you just walk along the lake to view.

I took the trip with hide cai. I liked the pace and the sites were what I wanted to see. The tour guide spoke English well and was able to provide valuable information about the sites that we visited. The weather also cooperated today and we did not encounter any rain.