Let's play to the fullest! Recommended Spots in Hokkaido for Fun with Kids
Hokkaido has many spots where both children and adults can enjoy themselves in the great outdoors, including theme parks, parks, and animal encounters. Ziplines, which are a hot topic of conversation, can be found throughout the region, allowing you to fully enjoy the excitement of gliding through the wilderness.
In addition to popular sightseeing spots, we will also introduce you to some off-the-beaten-track spots.
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Take the time to observe the creatures! There are also facilities where you can enjoy petting the animals!
Animals live lively in the rich nature of Hokkaido. There are many facilities where you can have direct contact with animals and learn the importance of life while observing them.
- Sapporo Maruyama Zoo (Sapporo City)
- The zoo is conveniently located within 30 minutes from the center of Sapporo. About 170 species of animals live in the zoo. One of the attractions of the zoo is its close proximity to the animals, such as the dynamic swimming of polar bears, which can be observed through an underwater tunnel! The spacious park also has a lawn area for picnics and a cafeteria. Both adults and children can enjoy the zoo all day long.
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- Hakodate Dosanko Farm (Hakodate City)
- This is a horse riding club where you can ride Hokkaido's famous "Dosanko Horses". You can trek through meadows and nature on horseback. Even beginners can feel safe as they will be carefully taught. You can also take lessons in horseback archery (yabusame). There are age restrictions depending on the menu, so please contact the facility for details.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Farms Chiyoda Fureai Farm (Biei Town)
- Visitors can interact with cute animals such as ponies, jersey cows, sheep, goats, and llamas. Admission to the ranch is free. A variety of hands-on programs are available, including horseback riding, milking cows, and feeding milk to calves. You can also feed the animals from the feed boxes set up throughout the ranch. The moment the animals eat from your hand is doubly cute! This is a facility that even small children can enjoy.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Sahoro Resort Bear Mountain (Shintoku Town)
- This facility covers an area of 15 hectares. Visitors can observe brown bears in their natural habitat. You can enter the brown bear forest on a bus with iron bars, or observe brown bears while walking along a boardwalk built on high ground. You can enjoy the realistic and powerful observation of brown bears!
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Nature and parks where you can play freely with your body
Children love to move around! Here are some parks and facilities where they can play to their heart's content during your trip.
- Sapporo Satoland (Sapporo City)
- This is a facility where you can experience agriculture while having fun. Visitors can experience harvesting fresh seasonal vegetables and feeding sheep and goats. There are many hands-on programs that children will enjoy, such as making their own butter, sausages, and ice cream. There are also a variety of interesting bicycles, SL buses, and athletic playground equipment!
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- Funkawan Bay Panorama Park (Yakumo Town)
- The park is located on a lush green hillside overlooking Funka Bay. There is a vast lawn area and unique large playground equipment that children can get absorbed in. There are many recreational facilities for children and adults alike, including a spacious indoor playground that can be enjoyed even in the rain, an auto-camping site, and a colorful flower garden.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Kamuinomori Park (Asahikawa City)
- There is athletic playground equipment of various difficulty levels for both small and large children. The park has many playgrounds, including an indoor playground with the warmth of wood, a water playground, and a campground. Hands-on learning activities such as crafts and events are also available.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Okhotsk Sea Ice Park (Mombetsu City)
- The vast park is divided into four blocks, each with a variety of facilities. The children's playground area features a large wave slide, a giant jungle gym, a jumping mountain, a pit combination playground, and other fun equipment! There is also a spacious indoor playroom.
- Website（Japanese site）
No problem even on a rainy day! Spots to play indoors
Weather is a concern when traveling. However, weather is a matter of luck. Here are some indoor spots where the whole family can have fun even when the weather is bad. Even if it's raining outside, your heart will be full of joy! Please play as much as you want.
- Shiroi Koibito Park (Sapporo City)
- This is a theme park for confectionaries that children love! There are many fun experiences for both adults and children, such as observing the production process of Hokkaido's famous confectionery "Shiroi Koibito" and others, making your own original sweets, and comparing chocolates.
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- AOAO SAPPORO (Sapporo City)
- This urban aquarium is located on the 4th to 6th floors of the "moyuk SAPPORO" complex in the heart of Sapporo. Its convenient location makes it easy to visit during sightseeing or shopping. The aquarium where cute penguins live is a novel tank that can change the shape of the land area! Other new exhibition methods, such as the use of digital art to recreate the vastness of the ocean world, are also popular.
- Website
- ROYCE' CACAO&CHOCOLATE TOWN (Tobetsu Town)
- Chocolate is a favorite of children! At this hands-on facility, you can experience a workshop where you can make your own original chocolate. A large chocolate board measuring approximately 23cm x 12cm is freely topped with delicious dried fruits, nuts, and other toppings! Once completed, they will put it in a package so it will make a great souvenir.
- Website
- Hakodate Kids Plaza (Hakodate City)
- This indoor park is located inside Kiralis Hakodate in front of Hakodate Station. Both children and adults can relax and play in the playground where they can use their whole bodies, as well as in the area where they can play with building blocks, play house, and read picture books. You can also bring your own lunch and eat it on the indoor terrace, making it perfect for families with young children.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Kenbuchi Town Picture Book Museum (Kenbuchi Town)
- The unique building is eye-catching. It is a facility where parents and children can enjoy a picture book library and an art museum in one. Visitors enter the museum without shoes. Visitors can spend a relaxing time sitting or lying down. There is also a "Gokko House," a furniture house for playing house, and a "Wooden Sandbox," containing about 100,000 wooden balls, so there is never a dull moment!
- Website（Japanese site）
- Yumenomori Park Visitor Center (Nakashibetsu Town)
- This park is popular among locals for its abundant nature. Both outdoor and indoor playground equipment are available. Inside the egg-shaped visitor center, there is plenty of playground equipment and toys in a spacious area! From slides and trampolines to bouldering and tricycles, there is something for everyone from little ones to big kids.
- Website（Japanese site）
Let's make various memories! Experiences and Activities
Why don't you experience Hokkaido's unique natural activities with your whole family and create wonderful memories for you and your children? The experiences you had as a child will surely remain vivid memories of fun, surprise, and excitement!
- Kita Yuzawa Mori no Soraniwa (Kitayuzawa Town)
- This resort hotel is a sports experience type hotel. The facility offers many fun activities for children and adults alike, including an outdoor athletic park where you can try zip-lining in a lush forest, an indoor attraction park with a wide variety of playground equipment, and a hot spring beach with natural hot springs.
- Website
- Forest Adventure Eniwa (Eniwa City)
- This outdoor park is located in the "Rurumap Nature Park Fureland". You can experience the dynamic zipline. Three courses of different difficulty levels are available, so even first-time visitors are welcome! Kids can try the kids' course from 90cm in height. During the winter season, you can also experience a zip trip tour with an instructor through the beautiful silvery forest!
- Website
- Hanazono Niseko (Kutchan Town)
- This facility allows visitors to enjoy outdoor activities to their heart's content in the great outdoors of Niseko. There is a zip line, the longest in Japan at 1.7 km, which flies at speeds of up to 110 km/h, and six tree trekking courses with athletic items high up in the forest trees. Fun kayaking for a leisurely stroll on the water, tree walking for a spectacular view, and many other fun activities are available.
- Website
- Jozankei Farm (Sapporo City)
- This farm has a beautiful orchard garden with blooming flowers and fruit trees. There are many experiences to enjoy the great outdoors, such as tree trekking, fishing ponds, and a forest playground where small children can play. Visitors can also enjoy experiences that are not usually available, such as making things using nuts, branches, and flowers and herbs grown in the garden. Seasonal fruit picking and making pizza and jam using seasonal vegetables are also recommended.
- View more (Japanese site)
- Onuma Canoe House (Nanae Town)
- This experience tour allows you to enjoy the rich nature of Lake Onuma and Lake Konuma, beautiful lakes spreading out at the foot of Komagatake Mountain. Visitors can enjoy a variety of seasonal activities such as nature exploration, canoeing, uninhabited island exploration, snowshoeing, and cross-country skiing. Early morning tours in the morning mist and night tours with beautiful moonlight are also popular and fantastic!
- View more (Japanese site)
- Usotannai Placer Gold Mining Park (Hamatombetsu Town)
- This facility allows visitors to enjoy digging for gold sand in the river. Instructors provide careful support, so even first-timers can feel at ease. Visitors can enjoy authentic gold dusting using "Yuri-ita" and "Katcha," traditional tools for gold dusting that have been used since ancient times in Japan. There is also gold dust digging, in which visitors search for gold dust in an aquarium tank, which can be experienced casually.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Tokachi Nature Center (Otofuke Town)
- This facility allows visitors to enjoy the great nature of Tokachi throughout the year. There are moored hot air balloon flights overlooking the Tokachi Plain. River SUP and canoe tours on the Tokachi River are also available. In winter, there are a variety of activities that children can participate in, such as snow rafting, snowshoe trekking, and eagle watching cruises led by bird guides.
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- Engaru Forest Okhotsk Roadside Station (Eastern Hokkaido)
- This is the first roadside station in Hokkaido to have a ski resort attached to it. There are many places to play, including a powerful zipline, tree trekking where you can enjoy walking in the air from tree to tree, and a silvery white ski slope in winter! As a roadside station, it is also a great place to enjoy a delicious meal and look for souvenirs.
- Website（Japanese site）
Exciting for both adults and children! Museums and Galleries
Here we introduce participatory facilities where you can enjoy using all five senses: seeing, touching, and making! Have fun with the whole family!
- Historical Village of Hokkaido (Sapporo City)
- This open-air museum features relocated, reconstructed, and reproduced buildings from various parts of Hokkaido constructed from the Meiji period to the early Showa period. The buildings are a sight to see. Children can enjoy the horse-drawn carriage railroad (in summer) and horse-drawn sleigh (in winter), as well as experience straw crafts and old-time games such as beanbags, Japanese Kendama (cup-and-ball).
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- Hakodate Miraikan (Hakodate City)
- This is an indoor facility where parents and children can enjoy experiencing science together. Monthly parent-child science workshops are also held. On the "Media Wall," a giant LED display, visitors can enjoy powerful images on a large screen, including views of Hakodate and games played while moving their bodies. Hakodate Kids Plaza is also located on the upper floor of the same building, so be sure to enjoy both!
- Website（Japanese site）
- Miyama Toge Art Park (Kamifurano Town)
- The Trick Art Museum is a complex facility centering on the Trick Art Museum. Visitors can enjoy artworks that look three-dimensional even though they are flat! Both adults and children are sure to be fascinated by the pictures popping up, playing with trick photos, and being amazed by optical illusions! From the Ferris wheel 50 meters above the ground, visitors can enjoy a magnificent view of the Tokachi Mountain Range.
- Website（Japanese site）
- Ashoro Museum of Paleontology (Ashoro Town)
- This museum exhibits mainly marine mammal fossils found in Ashoro about 25 million years ago. Skeletal specimens of large animals are a sight to behold! Visitors can also enjoy hands-on activities such as a mini-excavation where they can use various tools to dig out real fossils and mineral crystals from the stones.
- Website（Japanese site）
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