I was originally planning on doing the east side of Hokkaido on our own, but realised that transport is limited in that area. I chanced upon HTIT on the website; they had very good reviews and I decided to touch base with HTIT and spoke to Yuki (Maeda) san.

While hesitant initially, I was convinced that they are a good company. And indeed they are, albeit their higher prices. One word: amazing service and delivery!

Things to shout about and be thankful for:

– prompt service and response
– very personalised; yukisan came by to the hotel to meet us at the end of trip which was an unexpected pleasant surprise. She also took the trouble to locate places to purchase a bonito shaver which is not common in Hokkaido
– a good understanding of our preference of activities and able to tailor the itinerary to meet our needs (e.g. starting from Sounkyo)
– skiing is often associated with winter activities, but through HTIT, we experienced an amazing array of other activities – ice fishing, drift ice walking, snow shoe walking, dog sledding, snow mobile (not on the lake but on hilly terrain)
– flexibility of itinerary, including on-the-spot change in itinerary
– safe and extremely reliable driver who went way out to meet our needs (we had Hosono san).

We totally enjoyed Hokkaido, thanks to HTIT’s help with the second week of our holiday.