27 july to 6 august 2027 · wild north hokkaido
The Wild North Tour of Hokkaido
eleven days · a maximum of eight guests · USD $21,500 per person, twin share
While Honshu sits in the high thirties in July and serious touring is set aside until autumn, the far north of Hokkaido does the opposite. Up here summer means cool clean air with the bite of the mountains still in it, a sea breeze off the Okhotsk, the high country green and in flower, and light that lasts well past eight in the evening. This is the wild north very few travellers of any kind reach: an alpine roof where the ground breathes steam, a World Heritage coast of basalt cliffs falling straight into the sea, a roadless peninsula so rich in its own wildlife that you watch it from the calm of a boat, caldera lakes so clear the colour seems impossible, and a living Ainu community on a lake shore. We plan it, we arrange it, and we travel every mile of it beside you, so that across eleven days nothing is asked of you but to be there.
signature experiences
kamuy
The north as a living world
The Ainu, the Indigenous people of this island, understand the natural world in a way that is worth carrying with you before you travel it. In their belief, the things of the world are kamuy: the animal on the shore, the owl in the forest, the fish in the river, the mountain, the fire, the sea itself, each holds a spirit and is met with respect rather than mastered. It is a whole way of living alongside a place, one that shaped how people survived in a hard, beautiful country, and it is still carried by the community you meet on the shore of Lake Akan. To travel the wild north with that understanding in mind changes what you are looking at. The animal on the tideline, watched in silence from the water, is not a sight ticked off a list. It is another life, living as its kind always has, in a place that still belongs to it. The whole of this journey, the coast and the lakes and the wetland and the mountains, reads differently once you meet it as the Ainu have always met it: as a world that is alive, and owed respect.
signature moments
The heart of the journey
the wild coast
The wild coast, read from the water
A roadless peninsula and its living wildlife, watched in silence from the calm of a boat: the eagles, the whales of the strait, and a brown bear at the tideline.
the clearest water
The clearest water in Japan
Caldera lakes so clear the colour seems impossible, one sealed below its walls, one you can look clean to the bottom of.
ainu craft
The Ainu craft of Lake Akan
A living community of carvers on a lake shore, met as neighbours, five minutes from your room.
the cool north
The cool north in high summer
Onsen suites with private baths facing the water, long light until past eight, and the afternoons left open.
The colour keeps moving
The high country stays cool and green through July, while the rest of Japan waits for the heat to break.
the itinerary
the itinerary
The shape of the journey
The tour opens high, in the alpine roof of the island, where the ground still steams. It crosses to a World Heritage coast on the Okhotsk Sea for three nights, one of them given wholly to a roadless peninsula and its wildlife, read from the calm of the water. It comes down through the caldera country, past two of the clearest lakes in Japan, to a quiet ryokan on an Ainu lake, then to the great wetland where the cranes came back from almost nothing, and closes, after one short flight across the island, on the deepest, clearest lake of all, with three nights to let the whole north settle. Eleven days of cool clean air, and country that receives very few travellers of any kind.
the journey begins at home
Before you depart
The journey begins weeks before Japan. Your Tour Director meets you in a private video call: introductions, the shape of the eleven days, and your preferences gathered quietly, so every kaiseki kitchen knows your table before you land. A pre-journey welcome pack follows: packing guidance for the season, arrival instructions, and reading worth the flight. By the time you clear arrivals at Asahikawa, you are already known, and already expected.
1 · one night
Sounkyo
2 · three nights
Shiretoko
3 · two nights
Lake Akan
4 · one night
Kushiro, Noboribetsu
5 · three nights
Lake Shikotsu
accommodation
accommodation
Where you stay
sounkyo · night 1
Sounkyo Choyotei or similar
A ryokan set in the gorge at Sounkyo, the bath on the top floor looking straight out at the columnar cliffs and the ridgeline.
shiretoko, utoro · nights 2 to 4
Kitakobushi Shiretoko or similar
A hotel at the edge of Utoro facing the Okhotsk Sea directly, the rooms with a private open-air bath on the terrace looking at nothing but the water.
lake akan · nights 5 to 6
Hinanoza or similar
An intimate ryokan of twenty-five rooms on the shore of Lake Akan, each with its own open-air bath, the Ainu community five minutes on foot.
noboribetsu · night 7
Takinoya or similar
A ryokan of quiet refinement above the volcanic valley at Noboribetsu, the room with its own onsen and the kaiseki table waiting.
lake shikotsu · nights 8 to 10
Ao no Za or similar
The flagship ryokan on Lake Shikotsu, every one of its suites over a hundred square metres with a private open-air bath facing the water.
*or similar
tour experiences
tour experiences
Moments along the way
Kaiseki, the summer produce of the north
The high country above the central mountains
what is included
Looked after, entirely
From the moment you land, everything is anticipated. This is omotenashi, the Japanese art of caring for a guest before they think to ask, and for eleven days it is the texture of the whole tour. Your Tour Director meets you in the arrivals hall at Asahikawa, and two of us travel with the group throughout, by private van and one short internal flight, so you never navigate a timetable or wait on one person. Every reservation is made and every arrangement is settled long before you arrive. One price, settled before you travel, covers everything from the airport to the last dinner on the lake: every night, more than twenty-five meals, and every arrangement in between. Your only task is to give the north your whole attention, while someone who knows it completely carries the rest.
One price, settled before you travel
USD $21,500
per person, twin share. Guests travel two to a room
Part of your journey
included, always
All ten nights of the journey, at the properties named below
Your Tour Directors with the group throughout
Private vehicles throughout, and the one internal flight across the island, Kushiro to New Chitose
Your Tour Director meeting you at Asahikawa, and travelling with you to New Chitose at the close
Every entrance, and every arrangement in between
the days
The Asahidake ropeway into the alpine roof of Hokkaido, where the ground still steams
A World Heritage coast on the Okhotsk Sea, read from the calm of the water
A roadless peninsula and its wildlife, the eagles, the whales, and the life along its tideline
The blue-black of Lake Mashu and the warm sand of Lake Kussharo
A living Ainu community and its carvers on the shore of Lake Akan
The great Kushiro wetland by canoe, with the red-crowned cranes
The clearest lake of the journey, three nights in a suite with a bath on the water
at the table
Kaiseki at every ryokan, the cold-water seafood of the north at its summer peak
A robatayaki counter on the Kushiro harbourside
The prized Rausu kelp, as a clear dashi on its own coast
The produce and dairy the cool northern summer makes so good
A farewell kaiseki on the lake
More than twenty-five meals in all, every one included
Every night, more than twenty-five meals, and every arrangement in between: one price covers everything from the airport at Asahikawa to the last dinner on the lake.
how we work
We plan it, we run it, and we time it ourselves
We plan, organise, and run every tour ourselves, and your Tour Director travels every mile with you, in a group that never exceeds eight, a small number of couples and no more. That scale is what lets us reach a country this remote and keep it comfortable. The rooms that matter most here are few: twenty-five suites on a lake shore that take no direct booking, and we reserve them nine to twelve months ahead. Knowing which boat to put you on for the wild coast, how to bring you into a living Ainu community as a neighbour, and where the north is at its height in its one cool season, is the work of people who have been there many times over. It is why we keep the group small.
how it works
How it works, and the terms
The process
Enquire through the form, and tell us about the journey you want. If you would like to talk it through, a call with your Tour Director is available. A deposit of USD $3,500 per person secures your place, and the balance falls due 95 days before departure. Nearer the time, your Tour Director calls you again, to prepare you for the days ahead.
Payment
One price, paid once, quoted in US dollars, tax included. It covers every night, every transfer, every reservation, and every meal set out in this itinerary. Payment is by card or bank transfer.
The terms
Your booking is governed by our Booking Conditions, which set out what is included and excluded, and our cancellation terms in full.
Good to know
International flights to Asahikawa, a short, frequent connection from Tokyo, and home from New Chitose are not included; the one internal flight within the tour is. Comprehensive travel insurance is a condition of booking.
questions
frequently asked
Questions before you enquire
If your question is not answered here, ask us; it is what the enquiry is for.
How many guests are on the tour?
Is the pace demanding?
What is included in the price?
Can you accommodate dietary requirements?
Where does the tour finish?
When does the tour run, and when should I enquire?
from The Japan Edition
Read before you go
when to speak to us
A journey that keeps coming back to you
This is a journey that keeps coming back to you long after you are home: the steam curling off the alpine slope, the wildlife of a roadless coast watched in silence from the water, the blue-black of Lake Mashu the moment the rim drops away, the carver's hands at the bench, the bath on the terrace facing a lake you can see clean to the bottom of. None of it happens in a temple, and none of it happens in the heat, which is the whole idea.
Considered. Intimate. Perfect.
The next step is a conversation. Begin your enquiry, and we will confirm your place before you book a single flight.
27 July to 6 August 2027eight placesUSD $21,500 per person, twin share