Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival: How to Visit Hokkaido’s Ice Wonderland

Last Updated on June 3, 2026 by Charlotte

The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival is one of the most underrated winter festivals in Hokkaido, and it completely blew my mind! Crafted from the famously clear blue water of Lake Shikotsu, this small-but-spectacular event is a frozen playground of ice caves, towering sculptures, dangling icicles, glowing tunnels, and even chandeliers made entirely from ice.

Woman in a blue skirt standing before a glowing ice wall under a starry twilight sky at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

During the day, everything glows an otherworldly glacial blue; at night, the whole place transforms under colorful lights. And somehow, despite being one of the most magical winter experiences in Hokkaido, it still flies under the radar with international visitors. Here’s everything you need to know to add the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival to your winter Hokkaido itinerary.

Just a heads-up: some links on this site are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase. Your support helps to keep the blog running.

Why You Need to Add the Shikotsu Ice Festival To Your Bucketlist

We arrived maybe thirty minutes before sunset, and the moment the sculptures came into view, framed against the sunset sky, it looked like we’d wandered straight into Elsa’s castle.

Tall pillar of dripping ice silhouetted against a soft pink and blue sunset sky at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

Pink and blue twilight sky framed by an oval opening in a sculpted ice tower at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

Inside the festival grounds, there were caverns and towers and ice walls, all built from the lake’s own water, the ice glowing a blue so clear it seemed lit from within.

Crowds walking through a canyon of towering pale-blue ice sculptures against a soft pink sunset sky at Lake Shikotsu

Each year, the ice sculptures and the festival layout are designed by locals, and built fresh every winter by spraying lake water onto frames and letting it freeze layer by layer, beginning as early as November.

Woman in a silver puffer and pom-pom beanie crouching with hands on cheeks inside a glowing turquoise ice cave at Shikotsu

I’ve been to a lot of beautiful places in winter, but I had never before seen anything like this! One of the blue ice cave passages led to a recreation of a chapel with vaulted ceilings.

Woman in a pale puffer and pom-pom beanie walking down a narrow glowing blue ice corridor at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

Couple making a heart with their hands beneath a crystal chandelier and green stained glass spires inside the ice chapel at Lake Shikotsu

I was blown away by the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, with prisms made entirely of ice!

Crystal chandelier glowing inside a vaulted ice chapel with green stained glass spires at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

The green illuminated “Mossy Cave” was also one of the highlights of the 2026 winter season, with the ceiling of the cave crusted with hanging icicles.

Looking up at the glowing emerald ceiling of the Mossy Forest icicle cave at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

Woman in a pale silver puffer coat walking through the green-lit Mossy Forest icicle cave at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

After dusk, colored lights illuminated the ice walls and towers like frozen rainbows, and this seemed like the popular time to arrive, cause the crowds really started filling in.

Glowing blue and green ice tower lit from within against a dusky sky at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

Plan Your Visit to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival (Shikotsuko Hyoto Matsuri) runs for about three to four weeks each winter, from late January into late February. In 2027, the festival will run from January 30 to February 23.

Lake SHIKOTSU Ice Festival entrance sign reading "Hyoutou" in blue Japanese kanji, framed by a wall of carved ice

How to Get to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

Lake Shikotsu sits about an hour south of Sapporo, tucked into Shikotsu-Toya National Park.

There’s no single obvious way to get there, so it really comes down to whether you want flexibility, want to save money, or want to hand off the logistics entirely. Here’s all the ways to get to the Shikotsu Ice Festival:

By car

The Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival grounds are roughly a 40- to 50-minute drive from either Sapporo or New Chitose Airport, and around a 1.5-hour drive from Niseko. Having your own car means you arrive exactly when you want (more on timing below) and leave when you’re ready, instead of racing a bus schedule.

There’s free ice festival parking at the Lake Shikotsu (Shikotsuko Onsen) Public Parking Lot. From the car park, it’s around a five to ten-minute walk to the festival entrance.

By public transit

The easiest car-free option to get to the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival is the Hyoto BLUE LINER, a reservation-only shuttle that runs throughout the festival. You just need to get yourself to one of its pickup points.

Flying in? Board at New Chitose Airport. Coming from Sapporo? Take the Rapid Airport train to JR Chitose Station (about 30 minutes) and catch it there. Seats are guaranteed, so you skip the stress of the sparse local bus, and the timetable lets you arrive before the 4:30 illumination and still make the last shuttle back around 7:30 p.m.

The Hyoto BLUE LINER costs roughly ¥2,000 each way (¥1,000 for elementary kids), pre-booked through Sapporo Kanko Bus by 8:30 p.m. the day before. A cheaper local Chuo Bus also runs to the lake, but it’s infrequent enough that the Blue Liner is worth the few extra yen.

By group tour

If you’d rather not drive on winter roads, a group tour from Sapporo is a great option because they handle all the transit, and you never have to think about bus timetables. This is the route Travel Buddy and I took, and while I was grateful we didn’t have to drive ourselves, we only got about an hour and forty-five minutes on the ground because the day ran late.

Hours and Admission

During the festival periods, the grounds are open daily from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and the illumination switches on around 4:30 p.m. or after sunset.

For the 2026 festival, there was a small admission fee of ¥1,000 per adult, and children 11 and under got in free. The 2027 admission prices have not been released yet, so there may be an admission cost increase. I’ll update this post when the 2027 ticket costs are made available to the public.

Visitors queuing at the blue "ENTRANCE" ticket booth flanked by sculpted ice walls at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

Travel tip

Unfortunately, in 2026, it was not possible to buy advance tickets. You pay at the gate, and they take cash or card, but the wait in the ticket line can eat into your visit. We lost a solid fifteen minutes just queuing to get in, which stung when we were already short on time!

Best Time of Day to Visit

I’d plan to arrive about 45 minutes to one hour before sunset. That window is the sweet spot because you’ll catch the sculptures in natural light, when the famous “Shikotsu Blue” is at its most unreal and the crowds are still thin, and then you can stay as the 4:30 p.m. illumination kicks in and watch the same ice glow under colored light. You get both versions of the festival in a single visit (and for what it’s worth, the daytime blue ice color was my favorite of the two).

Visitors gathered atop layered ice formations against a pastel sunset sky at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival in Hokkaido

It’s also worth knowing how dramatically the crowds change after dark. Before sunset, we wandered straight into the icicle cave and had it almost to ourselves; an hour later, there were lines to get into the very same spots. So even if you’re coming mainly for the night lights, get there early and visit your must-see sculptures first, before the evening crowd rolls in.

Facilities and Accessibility

Places to eat

You won’t go hungry here! There’s an “Ice Kitchen” serving hot drinks to wrap your hands around, food stalls dishing out wintry comfort food like hot corn soup, and — the part we still kick ourselves over — marshmallows you can toast over open fire pits while you warm up.

Visitor toasting marshmallows over an open fire pit ringed with logs at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

We were so wrapped up in the sculptures that we (foolishly) never stopped to try any of it, so learn from us and leave a little time to actually eat.

Crowd queuing outside a lit-up Japanese souvenir and snack shop at blue hour near the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival, Hokkaido

There’s also brick-and-mortar restaurants closer to the car park, although they had long lines both when we arrived and when we left.

Visiting with limited mobility, kids, and the elderly

To be frank, everything here is ice! The whole site is built from frozen lake water, the paths are packed snow (as you can see in the photo below), and there’s a steep, slick walk down to the festival entrance.

Snowy lakeshore view of the red Yamasen bridge with Mount Eniwa beyond Lake Shikotsu at dusk, Hokkaido in winter.

We saw some elderly visitors having a genuinely hard time on the way down. Ice spikes make an enormous difference, but if you or someone in your group has mobility concerns, know that this isn’t an easy-access site. Nonetheless, we saw lots of families with young children who looked like they were having a blast, especially around the fire pits.

Restrooms

There were public restrooms on the festival grounds, but to my dismay, the toilet seats were not heated! My poor bottom has never before been so cold. The restrooms also did not have hand soap, so bring your own hand sanitizer if you are a germaphobe like me.

How Much Time You Need for the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival

If I could visit again, I’d plan to spend 2-3 hours at the Shikotsu Ice Festival. The grounds are fairly compact (and you could speed run them in around an hour if there were no crowds), but you’ll want time to wander the sculptures in daylight, watch them transform once the lights come on, and still leave a margin for the walk in from the parking area.

A flock of birds flying over the curved crest of a frozen ice wall at the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival in Hokkaido

We had about an hour and forty-five minutes, and it simply wasn’t enough — I left wishing we’d budgeted more time, especially since we ran out of time to eat.

What to Wear and Bring

This was one of the coldest places we visited in Hokkaido, with a frigid wind that comes whipping straight off the lake. If I hadn’t been so distracted by how beautiful everything was, I think I would have been a human icicle. I mean, I was a human icicle, I couldn’t feel my face, fingers, feet, or legs by the time we departed!

Here’s what you’ll want:

Serious layers plus a windproof outer shell (we even saw people wearing ski pants)
Insulated, waterproof boots and warm socks
A hat, gloves, and a scarf or neck gaiter
Hand and toe warmers (worth every yen)
Cleats or Yaktrax for your boots
A camera you trust in low light
External battery bank

Where to Stay Near the Ice Festival

Most people, (us included), treat the festival as a half-day trip from Sapporo, which has by far the most lodging and makes the easiest base for a winter Hokkaido trip. If you’re planning to spend some time in Sapporo, be sure to check out my guide on the best places to stay in Sapporo (one of which has an UNLIMITED crab leg buffet!)

If you’d rather make a trip of it, you can stay right on the water at Shikotsuko Onsen, the little hot-spring village beside the festival grounds, and staying over lets you pair the festival with a proper onsen soak. The Lake Shikotsu Tsuruga Resort & Spa (Mizu no Uta) is the best-known option, but I’d only recommend basing yourself out here if you have a car, since the bus connections are infrequent.

Is the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival Worth It?

10000 % Yes! We visited multiple winter festivals in Hokkaido this winter, and the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival was my absolute favorite one. I think it’s because the Shikotsu Ice Festival is so much more immersive than the Sapporo Snow Festival. Instead of just looking at neat things, you get to walk inside of them and explore ice caves and caverns. I don’t like being in big crowds, and so I loved that it was also much less crowded than the Sapporo Snow Festival too.