Hokkaido Day Trip from Sapporo: Asahiyama Zoo, Blue Pond & Shirahige Falls

This nine-hour scenic day tour lifts you out of central Sapporo and carries you north into the wide, open country that most visitors to Hokkaido never make time for. The coach rolls for around two hours before your first and longest stop, Asahiyama Zoo, where you have a couple of hours to work through the famously inventive enclosures at your own pace. The design here is what made the zoo well known, letting you watch the polar bears and the rest of the collection from angles that feel unusually close and unusually natural. From the zoo the road turns towards the countryside, pausing briefly for a photo of the Tree of Ken and Mary standing alone in its field, then continuing to Shirahige Waterfall, where meltwater spills straight out of the rock face into the river below. A short hop away lies the Shirogane Blue Pond, the still, mineral-tinted water whose colour has made it one of Hokkaido's most photographed places; you have time here to walk the shoreline, take pictures and browse the small shops. The final stop is Ningle Terrace, a scattering of little wooden craft cabins set among the trees and often called the Forest Elf Terrace, where you can wander between the workshops before the coach turns back towards the city. Two pick-up points and two drop-off points are available depending on the option you choose, so you can join and finish wherever is most convenient for your stay.