Yoichi Whisky and Otaru by Night: Private Driver-Guide Coastal Day in Sapporo

This private day gives you a driver-guide and a luxury van for ten hours and uses them to work along the coast west of Sapporo, ending with the one part of Otaru most day trips miss because they leave before dark. The first stop is the Yoichi Whisky Distillery, the place where Japanese whisky effectively began, set in a valley chosen precisely because its climate resembled Scotland's. Walking the grounds and the old stone buildings explains a great deal about why Japanese whisky turned out the way it did. From Yoichi the route continues to Otaru and Sakaimachi, the preserved merchant street of stone warehouses and glassworks that runs through the old town, where there is time to wander rather than march. Mt. Tengu comes next, rising directly behind the town and giving the wide view down over the harbour and the bay that puts the whole coastline into perspective. The finale is the Otaru Canal after dark, when the old gas-style lamps come on along the water and the warehouses are lit from below, which is far and away the best time to see it and the reason to have a driver rather than a train timetable. Door-to-door transfers in a private van mean no walking between stations with cold hands, and having a guide as well as a driver means the day comes with explanation rather than just transport. It is a long, full and comfortable day out of the city.