Sapporo Snow Festival | How to Visit Japan’s Biggest Winter Festival
Last Updated on June 3, 2026 by Charlotte
Every February, Sapporo transforms into a winter wonderland for the Sapporo Snow Festival (さっぽろ雪まつり, Sapporo Yuki Matsuri), Japan’s largest and most famous winter festival. What started as a small event with snow sculptures made by local high school students now draws over 2.5 million visitors every year. As we experienced firsthand, the Sapporo Snow Festival’s popularity also makes it the busiest and most expensive time of year to visit Sapporo, so here’s everything you need to know to plan your own visit to the Sapporo Snow Festival, and how to make your experience worth the trip.
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Snow Castles, Ice Dragons, and Peak Season Chaos at the Sapporo Snow Festival
When I saw extremely cheap plane tickets to Sapporo, I just knew that we had to make my dream of seeing the Sapporo Snow Festival a reality! What I didn’t expect was the days of blizzards, flight cancellations, and head-high snowdrifts. But despite all odds, we made it to Sapporo in one piece, and the snow sculptures were larger than I ever could have imagined.
Odori Park Snow Sculptures
On our first day at the festival, we headed to the Odori Park site early in the morning to try to get photos of the snow sculptures without the crowds.
One of my favorites was this “Cup Noodle” statue, which doubled as a slide, and the TV announcer slid down as we watched!
Did you know that the XL-sized snow sculptures, like the castle and replica city hall, can take over 3 months from idea to completion? Crews spend roughly November to early December drawing blueprints and building a 1:40 scale mock-ups, installing scaffolding, and preparing for snow collection in late December, then start on-site construction in Odori Park at the beginning of January.
But while the XL sculptures were most certainly impressive, I thought that the smaller ones were even more cute, like this duck and horse snow sculpture.
Pop culture enthusiasts will also LOVE how many themed character snow sculptures are scattered around the park, like Hello Kitty.
The snow festival fervor spills well beyond the sculptures, too! During your visit, keep an eye out for Snow Miku, the winter alter-ego of virtual pop idol Hatsune Miku, and the tourism ambassador of Sapporo!
Each year, Snow Miku’s costume design is selected in an online competition, and cafés roll out themed parfaits, shops stock limited-edition merch, and the Snow Miku goods are basically their own event. We saw lines wrap clear around the block for keychains and t-shirts!
Susukino Ice World
We visited Susukino Ice World on the second day of the snow festival, after enjoying a specialty coffee at the nearby Mermaid Coffee Roasters. I am quite embarrassed to share that we got super lost trying to find the venue! Travel Buddy was navigating us to where the label fell on the map of the snow festival; meanwhile, the actual Susukino site is right next to the Nikka Whiskey sign.
The one thing I found kind of crazy about the Susukino site is that all of the ice sculptures are on the median in the center of the road, but cars are still coming and going too. Nonetheless, some of the sculptures were really cool, like this ice crab!
Many of the Susukino ice sculptures are hand-carved by local restaurant chefs over a two-week period, which definitely explains the seafood theme.
At night, these ice sculptures are illuminated with neon lights, so it’s definitely worth a detour to Susukino after dark if you’re staying nearby.
While the Susukino site is much smaller than the Odori Park site, we still spent around thirty minutes enjoying the ice sculptures.
Plan Your Visit to the Sapporo Snow Festival
The 2027 Sapporo Snow Festival will run from February 4th to 11th, during the coldest time of the year in Hokkaido. Admission is free to the Sapporo Snow Festival, so this experience costs you nothing but the airfare to get up to Hokkaido.
How to Get There
The Sapporo Snow Festival spans across three separate sites, with the giant snow sculptures at Odori Park, the ice sculptures at Susukino, and the slides and rides at Tsudome.
Most travelers visiting from overseas, or Tokyo, will fly in through the New Chitose Airport (CTS). February in Hokkaido is notorious for blizzards, with weather-related flight and train cancellations, so if your itinerary permits, I would try to build in a few buffer days on either side of your visit to Sapporo.
From New Chitose Airport (CTS)
The JR Rapid Airport train runs straight from New Chitose Airport (CTS) to Sapporo Station in about 37 minutes for ¥1,430, several times an hour, with no transfers. It’s fully covered by the Japan Rail Pass and the JR Hokkaido Rail Pass if you’re carrying one.
Your second option is taking the highway bus (like the Chuo bus) from the New Chitose Airport to Sapporo. These highway buses can sometimes drop you off closer to your hotel if you’re staying in Susukino, and I think they’re an easier ride if you have a lot of luggage.
On our most recent trip to Sapporo, we took the JR Rapid Airport train on arrival at CTS, and the Chuo bus back to the airport on our departure.
From Sapporo Station
The Odori Park site is around a 15-minute walk from Sapporo Station, or a short 2-minute ride on the Namboku subway line, and the Susukino site is just one stop further. To get to the Tsudome site, you can take the Toho Line to Sakaemachi station, followed by the shuttle or a short walk.
Travel tip
If you’re hopping between festival sites and exploring the city, check out a Sapporo subway day pass. The standard One-Day Ticket is ¥830 (good any day, all three lines).
Where to Stay for the Sapporo Snow Festival
Because the Sapporo Snow Festival is split across three event sites (Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome), I recommend staying in the central Odori or Susukino neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have easy access to the underground malls like Pole Town, so if there is a blizzard, you can still get around on foot easily.
Be sure to check out my guide to the best places to stay in Sapporo, where I share my other favorite hotels in Sapporo, at a range of price points. We stayed at the Lamp Light Books Hotel on the Tanukikoji Shopping Street for the Sapporo Snow Festival, and I loved that we had easy access to restaurants, shopping, and our hotel was triangulated between the Odori site and the Susukino site.
Travel tip
Book your hotel stays early for the Sapporo Snow Festival!! Festival week is the priciest for accomodations (4 to 5 times more expensive than normal), and the fastest-selling week of Sapporo’s year, and last-minute means premium prices for whatever’s left.
How Much Time To Spend at the Sapporo Snow Festival
For most visitors, the Odori Park snow sculptures and the Susukino ice sculptures can be visited in one day. You can walk through all the snow sculptures in an hour, and seeing the ice sculptures took us around half an hour.
But, I think the best part of traveling to winter festivals in Hokkaido is enjoying the atmosphere! To get the most out of our Sapporo Snow Festival Experience, we explored the Odori Park snow sculptures on day 1 and visited the Susukino ice sculptures on day 2. The Odori park site has the classic food stall pop-ups, and you could easily spend more time here if you ate your way through the festival, and stayed till sundown for the projection mapping.
Best Times of Day to Visit the Sapporo Snow Festival
We visited the Odori Park Site around 7:30 am in the morning, and the Susukino Site around noon for the best odds of getting photos without too many other people in them. However, the most popular time of day to visit the Sapporo Snow Festival is actually at night! After dark, the snow sculptures are illuminated with an incredible projection mapping light show, and the ice sculptures at the Susukino site are lit up with colored lights. But in terms of crowds, you’ll have to deal with more people and longer lines for food stalls in the evening and after dark.
Facilities and Accessibility at the Sapporo Snow Festival
Because the Sapporo Snow Festival sits right in the heart of a major city, you’re never far from a warm restroom, a hot meal, or a place to duck out of the cold, which is a real advantage over the smaller, more remote winter festivals in Hokkaido.
Places to Eat
You will most certainly not go hungry at the Sapporo Snow Festival! The Odori site is lined with food stalls slinging Hokkaido specialties like grilled scallops, soup curry, ramen, jingisukan, and piping-hot drinks to warm your hands and belly.
Meanwhile, Susukino Ice World site doubles as Sapporo’s biggest dining and nightlife district, so the moment you want to sit down somewhere warm, you’re already surrounded by restaurants, izakayas, and cafés.
The Tsudome site keeps its food indoors, with gourmet booths and rest areas inside the heated dome.
Restrooms
There are public restrooms at each of the three Sapporo Snow Festival sites. At Odori Park, one of the best moves is to nip down into the underground concourse running beneath the park (Aurora Town or Pole Town). At Susukino Ice World, there are easy-to-get-to public restrooms in Susukino Station. At Tsudome, there are restrooms inside the dome and outdoors, but the official advice is to use the outdoor ones where you can, since the indoor arena toilets get crowded.
Amenities
- Convenience stores and ATMs are everywhere downtown — handy for cash, since smaller stalls are often cash-only.
- Warming spots: the underground malls beneath Odori, and the heated dome at Tsudome, are your two best places to thaw out.
- Information centers and lost-child centers operate at the sites (Tsudome has a staffed administration HQ and information center).
- First aid points on the festival grounds.
- Coin lockers at JR Sapporo Station and the subway stations for stashing luggage.
Accessibility
Our visit to the 2026 Sapporo Snow Festival was two days after a major blizzard that totally shut down the city, so the Odori Park site and the Susukino Ice World were anything but accessible. The snow banks were over head high, every outdoor walkway was coated with packed snow and ice, and everyone was slipping and sliding, and we saw more people than I could count on two hands slip and fall.
If you or anyone in your group has mobility concerns, it’s worth checking the festival’s official accessibility information before you go.
What to Wear & Bring
Sapporo in February sits roughly −7 °C to 0 °C (19°F to 30°F), and you’ll be standing around outside for hours, so your best bet is to dress in layers. It was surprisingly sunny on the morning we visited the Odori Park Site, and even though the snowbanks were head high, I was shocked when I started overheating in the direct sunlight.
- Warm layers plus a windproof outer shell
- Insulated, waterproof boots and warm socks
- A hat, gloves, and a scarf or neck gaiter
- Hand and toe warmers (worth every yen)
- Ice spikes or Yaktrax because the packed-snow paths get icy and slippery
- A camera, kept in an inside pocket so the cold doesn’t drain the battery
- An external battery bank to recharge your phone
If you’ve never visited Hokkaido before, the thing I found so strange as a foreigner is just how warm the trains, buses, and malls keep the ambient temperature. It is positively broiling! I felt like I was going from freezing on the streets to sweating inside.
Is the Sapporo Snow Festival Worth the Trip?
Visiting the Sapporo Snow Festival was a bucket-list experience for me, and I am so happy that we made the trip. However, I think seeing it once was enough for me! I say this simply because I’ve visited Sapporo outside of snow festival season, and I prefer not paying out the ears for hotels, waiting in lines for restaurants, and being packed onto trains like sardines.
Also, now that I’ve visited some of Hokkaido’s other smaller and more intimate winter festivals like the Lake Shikotsu Ice Festival (my #1 favorite!) and the Asahikawa Winter Festival, I’d rank these smaller festivals higher up on my list of favorites than the Sapporo Snow Festival!
If your itinerary allows, I would structure your trip to overlap with the first few days or the last days of the Sapporo Snow Festival, so you don’t have to pay the Sapporo Snow Festival surge pricing and peak tourist chaos.
Ready to Plan Your Trip to Hokkaido?
Out of all the destinations in Japan, I LOVE SAPPORO SO MUCH! I am already planning my next trip back! Aside from the snow festivals, there are so many more fun things to do in Sapporo, like visiting Hokkaido Jingu Shrine, the Hill of the Buddha, or taking a day trip to Otaru to eat king crab!
