7 Helpful Sapporo Snow Festival Tips in Hokkaido, Japan
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Hello and welcome or welcome back to my blog! Today we’ll be talking all about the famous Sapporo Snow Festival! I visited for the first time in February 2025 during my week long winter road trip around Hokkaido! For the last leg of the trip, we based ourselves in Sapporo, the largest city in Hokkaido for this event and…well, I certainly would have appreciated some Sapporo Snow Festival tips.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not super hectic or overwhelming or anything, quite the opposite considering how big the event is. But still, things could have run smoother (and more comfortably) if I had known more about what I was getting myself into haha.
So that’s why I’m here today with this post! If you are interested in visiting, these are some of my biggest Sapporo Snow Festival tips for first timers as well as some insight on what to expect. Let’s get into it 🙂
Table of Contents
Where is It
So first, where the heck is the Sapporo Snow Festival? Well, going from big to small, it’s in the country of Japan, which is actually made up of four main islands. The northernmost of these four main islands is the island of Hokkaido. For reference, Tokyo is on the largest and most populated island of Honshu and is the “main island” when people think of Japan.
Situated very close to Russia, Hokkaido gets cold in the winter. Because of this, it’s become a hot spot (irony aside) for snow activities. Hokkaido’s biggest city is Sapporo, with almost 2 million people, and !!!surprise!!! where the Sapporo Snow Festival is located.
I know it was a bit of a geography lesson, but I just wanted to paint a picture for you since many people mistakenly think they can visit on a day trip from Tokyo.
Sapporo does have an international airport – New Chitose Airport (CTS) – but for many travelers, they might be flying into Tokyo first. Tokyo is 16 hours away by car, 8 hours by bullet train, or a 2 hour flight, so pick whichever way works best for you and your itinerary to visit the Sapporo Snow Festival.
When to Visit
Compared to a few other snow/ice festivals around the world, the Sapporo Snow Festival is relatively short, only lasting about a week. It typically kicks off the first week of February, for 2026 it was February 4 – 11, but the exact dates can vary so be SURE to check the calendar.
Japan is a punctual country, okay? The first pre-Sapporo Snow Festival tip is that the festival grounds are boarded up until the day OF and immediately blocked off again the day after. There are no sneak peaks or getting a glimpse outside of the very specific time window, so make sure your visit aligns with that of the festival.
If you aren’t staying that whole week-ish in Sapporo (you really don’t need to, at least not for the festival), then my personal recommendation would be staying in Sapporo sometime between the 2nd and 6th or 7th day of the festival. If you want to see more of the preparation of snow and ice sculptures, then definitely visit earlier in the week. Otherwise if you want to see the fully completed sculptures, then aim for later in the week.
Buuut a word of warning that the last day or two of the festival, you may notice some of the snow features started to melt or sloop because…yanno, it’s snow.
What are the Areas
Another thing to know before we get into the Sapporo Snow Festival tips, here’s another thing that first timers might not know before they visit. The festival is actually broken up into three separate parts, and they’re all different from each other. Depending on how much time you have and what your interests are, you can decide which you’d like to visit.
- Odori Park, 7am-10pm: the “main” area of the Sapporo Snow Festival, and likely what you’ll want to spend the most time exploring. The park stretches for blocks, an during the festival it is filled with snow sculptures, stages for performances, food booths, and miscellaneous attraction. Expect to spend at least 2-3 hours here, plus an hour or two if you come back at night.
- Tsudome Family Site, 10am-4pm: this is the only site I didn’t personally go to, and it’s quite a bit away from Odori Park (~30 min by car or public transit). It is mostly family/kid-focused, with snow slides for tubing and sledding, snowball throwing (at targets), snow soccer golf (basically golf with a soccer ball), a sculpting competition by local high schools, and various snow play areas where people can…well, play in the snow.
- Susukino Ice World, 7am-10/11pm: located a few blocks away from Odori Park, this setup primarily features ice sculptures. It’s not as big as Odori Park so you won’t need more than an hour. If you only want to visit once, I’d recommend visiting at night since I thought the ice looked a lot cooler with the lights.
Cost
The piece of logistics that we’re ALL looking for, right? Well, this isn’t really a Sapporo Snow Festival tip but…it’s completely free!
TO VISIT.
There is no admission fee or ticket required to stroll through the various areas of the Sapporo Snow Festival, which is incredible considering how big of an event it is! So if you’re on a budget, it’s a great add-on to your Sapporo itinerary. However….that doesn’t mean that nothing has a price tag.
Some of the extra activities (like the ice skating rink) have a fee, so if you have kids it can add up. Other things like the TV tower have a fee to ride up. I personally didn’t go up, but I have heard it’s a nice view, it was just too crowded when I went.
I’ll have specific Sapporo Snow Festival tips on crowds later.
There are also lots of food and drink booths, which are super convenient buuut definitely pricier compared to average Japanese food prices. Depending on where you are coming from (and for foreign travelers if your currency is stronger/weaker than the yen), it might be worth it to eat before and after if you are on a budget. That said, I quite enjoyed having a snack and hot beverage while strolling, they were tasty and helped keep me warm haha.
Then of course, there’s the cost of the flight, hotel stay, food, and activities when you aren’t at the festival. So it’s important to keep those in mind as well when you’re planning the budget for your trip.
Sapporo Snow Festival Tips
Okay, now we’re finally getting into the meat of my Sapporo Snow Festival tips! These are all things I largely had to learn the hard way because it was hard finding non-sponsored information online in English. Thankfully, there are more resources now, but a majority of the really thorough and in-depth content with Sapporo Snow Festival tips are in video format.
What about those of us who perfect written format???
So hopefully me sharing my list of Sapporo Snow Festival tips will help bridge the information gap just a bit more! So let’s dive in:
1. Book Early
My biggest Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to book your accommodations (and rental car if you choose t) EARLY. As early as possible. As early as you book your flight to Japan and know you’ll be attending the festival.
Booking early is a general Japan travel tip that I like to live by, but it is especially true when it comes to this festival. Although Sapporo is a city of almost 2 million people, the area around the festival really isn’t that big. The hotels that are close to Odori Park are limited. The more affordable hotels go quick, basically as soon as people start planning for the next year.
And if you do have a rental car, it might be even more difficult to find a hotel with parking or a cheap lot nearby.
The BEST hotel you can book for the Sapporo Snow Festival is Hotel Gracery Sapporo. Besides being a very comfortable hotel at an affordable price, the biggest perk is that it is directly connected to the underground subway so you don’t have to walk outside too long. That really comes in handy when the weather gets a bit cold or nasty. BUT if you do choose to walk, it’s only about 10-15 minutes to Odori Park on foot!
However….we were waiting on our friend to book our hotel rooms together…only to find out a few months before that she had already booked a place hahha. So by the time I booked, most of the affordable hotels near Odori Park were LONG sold out. However, there was a more expensive hotel left, La’gent Stay Sapporo Odori Hokkaido, and they had an associated parking lot nearby. They also had an onsite onsen, which was so fantastic after being out in the cold all day!
Meanwhile, said friend stayed in APA Hotel & Resort Sapporo because I believe she has a loyalty with them (she travels a lot for work all throughout Japan). They are on the smaller room size, but very affordable for Japan which makes it perfect for solo travelers. This hotel also has an onsite onsen and self-parking is included!
But let’s say everything near Odori Park is either sold out or out of your budget. Then what? My next Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to look for a hotel near a subway station, either along the Toho Line or Namboku Line. Those will be a straight shot to Odori Park and keep you connected to the main hub of the city.
2. You Don’t More Than Two Days
SPECIFICALLYYYYY for the festival. You definitely can (and should) spend more time in Sapporo, especially with all of the fun day trips from Sapporo you can take. But in terms of seeing and doing the things at the festival, you don’t really need more than two days, max.
More likely, you’ll use a day and a half if you visit all of the sites, or you might prefer to break up the festival by only doing a little bit on various days. Either way, don’t think that you’re going to need to block off three or four full days for the Sapporo Snow Festival. We stayed in Sapporo about four and a half days, but only really focused one day to the festival (though we did use a second night to see Susukino Ice World at night).
For the rest of your time based in Sapporo, explore the other activities the city has to offer, like the Sapporo Beer Museum! Or do what we did and take a few day trips. There are even other cities celebrating their own winter festivals that you can check out:
3. It’s Bigger than You Think
Y’all, Odori Park is HUGE. You may think, oh how long could a little stroll walking around looking a snow take….heh, surprisingly a while!! I was actually only expecting to spend an hour or so at Odori Park, and then I could head over and do 10348393 other things to do in Sapporo and really knock out my itinerary, but I was not expecting Odori Park to go on for blocks and blocks and blocks.
Even if you don’t stop and take pictures at every snow sculpture, it’s the actual walking that takes time. I know I said you won’t need more than two days, but that doesn’t mean you can do it all in two hours either. So my next Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to expect to spend at least two to three hours at Odori Park alone if you want to cover all of the blocks. Like a solid half day if you include food and various activities. Then maybe an hour at Susukino Ice World, and a few hours at Tsudome Family Site depending on how fast you or your kids tire out.
So wear comfortable shoes and dress warmly – more on that later tho!
4. There are Mini Activities
Another Sapporo Snow Festival tip I have is to keep an eye out for the mini activities within the festival. Yes, there’s more than just snowmen (though, there are a lot of snowmen).
As mentioned previously, there is the international sculpture contest that takes place between the first day of the festival and voting concludes on the 4th, usually. So if you’re interested in the construction of these sculptures and watching contestants from around the world take place in making, then my Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to visit earlier in the week. But even if you don’t see the construction process, it’s still really fun to see all of the finished pieces and compare your own thoughts to that of their rankings!
The next big activity is the ice rink in the middle of Odori Park. It’s not the biggest, but it’s a good size. The only potential con (for adults) is that the majority of people in the rink are kids and it can be hard not to be…mm, like, taking up too much space, yanno? Like I just feel so big and at risk of knocking them over if I fully go all out, haha. But it is a wonderful space for families and adults NOT looking to do full triple axel laybacks. This activity does have a fee!
Also in Odori Park, and one of my favorite activities, is the booth that features Ainu crafts and learning about Ainu culture. Earlier in my road-trip I had visitied the Upopoy National Ainu Museum and Park, and I loved to see more of Hokkaido’s Indigenous culture represented and showcased during the festival. So another insider Sapporo Snow Festival tip – stop by the Ainu booth and do some of their activities – and it’s free!
Another Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to also visit the Odori Park and Susukino Ice World at night! I already mentioned how the ice sculptures at Susukino are lit up, but in Odori Park, the light shows playing across the massive snow sculptures begin at sunset and go until the park closes at about 10pm.
The last Sapporo Snow Festival tip I have concerning some of the extra activities is to definitely check out the booths and pop-ups happening around the various sites. If you’re reading this from Portland, Oregon (hello fam!), Sapporo is actually our sister city and the team from Travel Portland was there and giving samples or our famous Oregon wines! There’s also hot sake, pop culture booths, and lots of companies giving merch and whatnot.
5. Tons of Food and Drink
This will be a really fast Sapporo Snow Festival tip but I do recommend checking out the food and beverages around the sites. There’s even a good amount of Hokkaido-specific booths, so it’s really fun to try some of the regional specialties and snacks along with some of the classic Japanese favorites. There’s even an ice bar at the Susukino site.
Most of the food does cost money, so be prepared for that, but you’ll also find a few experiences like the beforementioned Travel Portland set up. Just just keep your eye out.
6. Stay Warm
The weather is probably the biggest concern for new attendees, which is understandable. Hokkaido in the winter is colder than what most people experience in their everyday lives. My Sapporo Snow Festival tip for staying warm is to dress in layers – a lot of layers.
You’ll of course want to bundle up, and I highly recommending wearing heat-tech under layers (I picked some up from Uniqlo for a great price). At the same time, the subway is very very warm, and if all you’re wearing are thick sweaters that you can’t take off, you’re going to be uncomfortable. So, heads up, it’s good to have layers that you can unzip so you won’t sweat buckets and then immediately have all that sweat freeze against your body once you step outside.
Another tip is to bring plenty of hand warmers. Again, you can easily pick these up from convenience stores, or even bringing them from home. But in case you forget them, it’s reassuring to know you can easily find them. Definitely bring snow shoes that are waterproof and have good traction. Even though they do a good job of maintaining the walkways, it’s very easy for ice to build up and things can get slippery.
Thankfully, you can also find crampons, or metal traction devices that you can attach to the bottom of your shoes, at convenience stores! How convenient haha.
7. Avoid Peak Times
Okay my last quick Sapporo Snow Festival tip is to preferably avoid peak times if/when possible. Typically, that’s anytime on the weekends, aka Saturday and Sundays. It’s a big festival and a lot of working professionals are only able to visit on the weekends. It’s also when the most school children will be in attendance.
To avoid the crowds, you’ll want to visit on the weekdays (Monday-Friday) if possible, and specifically between the times of 7am-10am and later at night after 6pm. That said, I visited during “peak hours” on the weekdays. It was definitely busy, but it wasn’t super overly crowded, so there’s hope if you aren’t an early bird or want to stay up super late.
The weekends though, yeah those are going to be packed regardless, but the general time frames will be slightly less busy.
Conclusion
And that’s all I’ve got for my favorite Sapporo Snow Festival tips for first time visitors. I’m hoping to return in the future and experience even more of the winter magic in Hokkaido. Has this festival been on your bucket list? Hopefully I’ve helped clear up some questions you might have about visiting, but if not please drop more in the comments and I’ll be sure to add to this to make the information even more helpful!
If you’ve been to the Sapporo Snow Festival, let me know what tips you would add to this list. ALSO, has anyone been to the Tsudome family site?? Please let me know how it was and if you have any specific tips that can help navigate that site. I would love to hear about your experience.
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