I'm a daughter, a wife and a mummy: Winter Holiday in Hokkaido

Holiday is coming again!! My favorite time.. lol

This year we are going to Hokkaido, Japan to have some snow time!!! I waited for some promotion on air-ticket coz it's way too expensive to go holiday in December. When I first checked, the price is about SGD $1200 for adult. I was quite sad, coz it's over our budget. So I checked again almost daily until I saw SGD $900+.. I was quite happy with that price but I didnt book straight away as I feel it should be slightly cheaper than that. So I waited another week... Tada!!! the price dropped to $733+ for Thai airways lol... Now it's the time to book!!!! (Trying to save as much as possible)

This is my first time taking Thai, but since it's not budget and not xhina airlines, I guess it should be ok right?? hahaha...

So our flight is

Departs 21:00pm to 22:20pm - From Singapore to Bangkok - 2h 20m

Departs 23:55pm to 8:20am - From Bangkok to Shin Chitose - 6h25m

I kind of like this timing, I can still work before i go to airport and once I reach there, it's a brand new day!! The boy seems to enjoy his in-flight entertainment... Varner always get super excited when on board, he can play and eat non stop.. lol

Food and service wise are just normal, nothing to complain or compliment. Seat are comfortable when we board the plane from Singapore to Bangkok. But Bangkok to Sapporo are abit cramp. I think smaller plane..

After about 12 hours of flight + transit, we finally reached Sapporo... We see snow and everyone was excited!!

We "line" our car rental company which is carrentalhokkaido once we collected our luggage. They will arrange to pick us up from airport to collect the car. The car rental office is about 7 mins drive from airport.

We rented a small car for 27740 Yen (SGD $347) for 5D4N which include protect the car-loss damage waiver and 1500Yen pick up fee from Sapporo instead of airport.

When renting car in Japan, please make sure that they can communicate in English. Some of the popular car rental that speak good english are Nissan, Honda, Toyata and Times. This car rental Hokkaido can speak english and some of their staff can speak mandarin.. So I would recommend this car rental if you do not mind to pick up car distance away from airport.

After all the paperwork and check, we drive to our first accommodation in Lake Toya!!!

Btw, Japan's GPS all using mapcode or phone which is different from Singapore. So when you plan your itinerary, remember to find the mapcode or phone no. ya... (we didn't rent the HEP card as we avoid toll to save $$)

Our first hotel is Toyako Onsen Hokkai Hotel 北海ホテル (Map code 321 517 499*7). We paid SGD $816 for 2 nights in this hotel (3 persons with breakfast and dinner included). In Japan, a kid is considered adult price once they are above 3 or 4 (please check as individual hotel is different).

Driving during winter can be dangerous as the road can be slippery, so please drive below 50km/h if you are first timer. Slow and safe is more important ya.. Driving slowly is not that bad with this kind of scenery right?? hehehe... enjoy the breeze and coolness...

We drove about 2 hours to reach Toya. Lake Toya is unique as it never freeze even during winter. It is surrounded by majestic mountains.