[Hokkaido] A Full Snowboard Trip to Tomamu: 2-Night, 3-Day Plan & Budget

This time I’ll share a recommended 2-night, 3-day itinerary for fully enjoying snowboarding at Tomamu, Hokkaido.

Hokkaido has plenty of ski areas known for their powder snow besides Tomamu — Niseko, Rusutsu, Kiroro, and more — but Tomamu, with its full resort atmosphere, is one you shouldn’t skip either.

I actually planned and took a 2-night, 3-day trip and fully enjoyed snowboarding there, so this article is written for anyone who’s “not sure what kind of plan to build for snowboarding at Tomamu” or “curious about the total cost” — I hope you’ll read all the way through.

I’ve also covered my stay at Hoshino Resorts TOMAMU The Tower in a separate article — take a look if you’re interested.

Days Needed for a Tomamu Trip: 2 Nights, 3 Days

At minimum, you’ll want 2 nights and 3 days for snowboarding and lodging at Tomamu.

With snowboarding, you lose time to things like changing into gear and packing, on top of normal travel time, so you’ll actually spend less time on the slopes than you’d expect.

If you can only manage 1 night and 2 days, your schedule will be extremely rushed, so it’s safer to just pass on a Tomamu/Hokkaido snowboard trip in that case.

Below is a plan overview departing from Tokyo.

Recommended Lodging Plan for a Tomamu Snowboard Trip

[Day 1]
Morning: Home → Haneda/Narita Airport → New Chitose Airport
Midday: New Chitose Airport → Hoshino Resorts Tomamu, Tomamu Ski Resort
Evening: Minamina Beach (bath & sauna), stay at Hoshino Resorts Tomamu
[Day 2]
Morning: Hotel breakfast, Tomamu Ski Resort
Midday: Tomamu Ski Resort
Evening: Minamina Beach (bath & sauna), stay at Hoshino Resorts Tomamu
[Day 3]
Morning: Hotel breakfast, Tomamu Ski Resort
Midday: Tomamu Ski Resort, Minamina Beach (bath & sauna), Hoshino Resorts Tomamu → New Chitose Airport
Evening: New Chitose Airport → Haneda/Narita Airport → Home

This should make it clear just how rushed things would be if you tried to squeeze this into 1 night, 2 days.

Day 1: Travel, Hotel Check-In, and the Tomamu Ski Resort

Day 1 is a plan where you depart from the Tokyo area, head to the Hoshino Resorts Tomamu Ski Resort, and enjoy half a day of snowboarding until sunset.

Day 1 of snowboarding is the most tiring, between the early wake-up and all the traveling.

Since half the day is eaten up by travel on day 1, you actually only get about 3 solid hours on the slopes.

Day 2: The Tomamu Ski Resort

The middle day is the most relaxed one. As long as you’re not lounging at the hotel, you can ski as freely as you like without worrying about time.

Day 2 gives you both morning and afternoon riding time, so you can take the gondola and try out a variety of different courses.

After snowboarding, I’d generally recommend Minamina Beach for the evening again, assuming you want a bath — but as an alternative plan, visiting Ice Village, where you can experience a dreamlike nighttime townscape, is also a great option.

It’s known as a signature winter sight at Tomamu, and draws plenty of international visitors too.

If you want to fit in Minamina Beach, Ice Village, and dinner all in one evening, you’ll want to be back at the hotel by 3:30pm.

Day 3: Checkout, the Tomamu Ski Resort, and Travel Home

Day 3 might be the most hectic, with checkout, packing, and travel all happening. Since you absolutely cannot miss your flight, planning backward from your flight time and sticking to the schedule is essential.

You can probably tell that, surprisingly, day 3 leaves almost no time for actual riding.

Even waking up at 7:00, you’re looking at about 3 hours of riding at most, so if you want to take the gondola up to the summit, do it right at the start of the day.

How Much Does a 2-Night, 3-Day Tomamu Snowboard Trip Cost?

The actual total cost for my 2-night, 3-day Tomamu snowboard trip came to ¥113,751.

Item	Cost	Notes
Lodging	¥54,900	*Split 4 ways; actual total was ¥219,600
Round-trip airfare	¥15,480
Rental car	¥6,650	*Split 4 ways; actual total was ¥26,600
Gasoline	¥600	*Split 4 ways; actual total was ¥2,400 *¥157/liter
Highway ETC tolls	¥915	*Split 4 ways; actual total was ¥3,660
Convenience store	¥1,677	*Split 4 ways; actual total was ¥6,708 *Drinks, alcohol, snacks, etc.
Round-trip board shipping	¥3,944	*Tokyo ⇔ Hokkaido, with a discount applied
Lift tickets	¥12,000	*3-day pass, paid online in advance
Meals	¥14,285	*Total for 1 breakfast, 3 lunches, and 3 dinners on day one onward
Souvenirs	¥3,300
Total	¥113,751

This time, I happened to get lucky with ANA’s 70th anniversary campaign and was able to book a round-trip ticket at a discount, which kept costs down — if you buy a round-trip ticket at an early-bird rate instead, you should add roughly ¥20,000 more to the total above.

In that case, the total amount needed for a 2-night, 3-day Tomamu snowboard trip comes to about ¥130,000.

What’s the Minimum Budget Needed for a 2-Night, 3-Day Tomamu Trip?

You want to snowboard at Tomamu! But since Tomamu runs on resort pricing, you need to plan with your budget in mind.

So what’s the bare minimum you’d need?

Unfortunately, there’s not much you can cut from the cost breakdown above — the bottom line is, you should plan to set aside around ¥130,000.

Airfare can be brought down to roughly ¥7,000–¥9,000 with an early-bird LCC fare.

For snowboarding at Tomamu, Hoshino Resorts is basically the only lodging option, and while weekdays run a bit cheaper, staying 4 to a room is the cheapest way to go.

Besides renting a car, there’s also the option of the Hokkaido Access Network bus, which runs ¥9,000 round trip, but the biggest downside is that it locks you into a fixed schedule.

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About the author

Joe

I love hotels, hot springs, and saunas across the whole country!!
I’ve made it to 40 prefectures so far.
Around 100 hotel stays and 50+ saunas visited, and the count keeps climbing.
My hobbies are travel, golf, snowboarding, saunas, and the gym.

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