Noboribetsu Bear ParkNoboribetsu Bear Park Admission Ticket (Ropeway Included)
The Noboribetsu Bear Park ticket is one purchase doing two jobs: it pays for the seven-minute gondola out of the hot-spring town and it admits you to the park at the top, where around seventy Ezo brown bears live on a 550-metre summit. At the counter that is ¥3,200 (about $22) for an adult and ¥1,600 (about $11) for a child aged four through sixth grade, with under-threes free. The same admission sold as an e-ticket runs US$21.09 and US$10.55 — near enough identical money, which is the honest headline of this page. What the voucher buys is a QR code instead of a queue, and it has been used by more than 10,000 travellers at a rating of 4.6 from 226 reviews. Everything else bookable in the valley sits on every Noboribetsu Bear Park ticket and tour.
About the Ticket
US$21.09 adult / US$10.55 child online; ¥3,200 adult / ¥1,600 child at the gate
About 90 minutes on the mountain; two hours if you eat at the top
4.6 from 226 Klook verified reviews; 10,000+ booked
Noboribetsu Cable Way Co., part of the Kamori Kanko group
Ropeway base station in the middle of Noboribetsu Onsen — no road access for visitors
Instant; show the voucher on your phone at the base-station counter
Quick answer Whether to buy ahead, and what the ticket does not cover
Buy ahead if you are arriving on a summer weekend or over New Year, when the base-station queue is real; otherwise the counter costs you two minutes and takes international cards. The ticket does not cover bear food — that comes from vending machines inside the park at ¥200 to ¥500 (roughly $1.50 to $3.50) a packet — and it does not cover getting to Noboribetsu Onsen, which is ¥2,500 on the direct highway bus from Sapporo or ¥4,890 by limited express plus a ¥450 local bus. Check the opening hours before you commit to an afternoon: the last ticket sells at 15:50 in winter, and the park shuts entirely for several weeks each spring while the ropeway is inspected. If you would rather someone else drove, one private day trip rides this ropeway — but its listing states the entry and gondola are still paid on site.
Check Dates and the Live Price
The time slot at checkout is administrative — admission works any time inside that day's opening hours. Pick the morning anyway: the keeper events and the clear light over Lake Kuttara both favour it.
You'll confirm the exact date and time on the secure booking page.
What the Ticket Actually Covers
The single most common misunderstanding about this park is that the gondola and the gate are two separate payments. They are not.
One fare, two things
The park states it directly on its own price page: the price for the ropeway ticket includes park entrance. So the ¥3,200 (about $22) you pay at the base station covers the ride up, the ride down and everything on the mountain — the bear enclosures, the Brown Bear Museum, Yukar Village and the Lake Kuttara Observatory. There is no turnstile at the top taking a second payment.
This matters when you are comparing against a day tour: an itinerary that says "bear park entrance not included" is quoting you the whole ¥3,200, not a small top-up.
The child rate, and who counts as a child
¥1,600 (about $11) covers ages four through the end of elementary school, roughly sixth grade. Children three and under go free, which makes this an unusually cheap outing for families with toddlers — though a toddler will get more out of the duck race than the museum. Junior-high age and above pay the adult rate.
Visitors with a disability pay ¥1,600 as an adult and ¥1,000 (about $7) as a child on production of a passbook, and that rate must be reserved in advance rather than claimed at the window.
What it does not cover
Bear food. Every review that mentions the highlight of the visit is describing the feeding, and the packets come from vending machines inside the park at ¥200 to ¥500 (roughly $1.50 to $3.50) each. Bring coins.
Also outside the ticket: the restaurant at the top, the souvenir shop, and of course transport to Noboribetsu Onsen itself. Budget ¥1,000 (about $7) per person on top of admission if you want to feed the bears properly and eat lunch on the mountain.
Online or at the Counter: The Honest Comparison
Most pages about this ticket imply advance booking saves money. It does not, and knowing that changes how you plan the morning.
The numbers, side by side
The e-ticket lists at US$21.09 for an adult, which converts to roughly ¥3,100 to ¥3,150 at the rates around this build — a handful of yen under the ¥3,200 counter price, and above it on a weak-dollar week. The child ticket at US$10.55 sits in the same relationship to ¥1,600. Nobody is discounting this ticket; the two prices simply track each other with an exchange rate in between.
Anyone advertising a saving here is quoting currency movement as a deal.
The counter is not cash-only
This is worth saying because plenty of rural Hokkaido attractions still are. The ticket window takes VISA, Mastercard, JCB, American Express, DC, NICOS and UnionPay, plus WeChat Pay and Alipay. So the online voucher is not solving a payment problem for foreign visitors — it is solving a queue problem, and only on the days there is one.
When advance booking is genuinely worth it
Three cases. A summer weekend or public holiday, when the base station backs up and the queue eats the best part of an hour. The New Year period, for the same reason.
And any day when you are on a tight connection — an airport bus at a fixed hour, a ryokan check-in, a limited express you have already reserved — because a QR code removes one variable from a schedule you cannot flex. On a wet Tuesday in October, walking up and paying at the window is completely fine.
Read the cancellation terms before you commit
The e-ticket is non-refundable and tied to the date you select, which is the one real drawback against paying at the gate. Hokkaido weather can shut the ropeway on wind alone, and while the park will not run a gondola it considers unsafe, a voucher bought for a day you cannot use is money gone. If your date is fixed and the forecast is unsettled, the counter keeps your options open — that flexibility is what you are trading away for the queue-skip.
A 10:00 Arrival, Step by Step
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09:45
Reach the base station
The ropeway station sits in the middle of Noboribetsu Onsen, a short walk from the bus terminal and most of the town's ryokan. Note the twenty steps before the ticket gate if anyone in your group is unsteady — staff will help, and free wheelchairs are kept here.
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09:55
Scan the voucher
Show the QR code on your phone at the counter; staff operate the ticket, so do not mark it as used yourself. Buy nothing else here — the bear food is sold at the top.
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10:00
Seven minutes up
The gondola climbs over birch forest to the 550-metre summit. On a clear day the Pacific opens up behind you on the way; in winter this is where you find out how much snow the mountain is carrying.
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10:10
The first bear enclosure
Head for the males first — visitors consistently report they are the animated ones, raising a paw to ask for food. Buy a packet or two from the vending machine and feed from the deck. There is a glassed observation box that puts you at ground level with them.
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10:45
The second enclosure and the events
The female enclosure is quieter. Check the board for the day's Bear Athletics demonstration and the Duck Race — the latter takes ten minutes, costs nothing extra, and is the thing families remember.
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11:10
Museum, Ainu village and the lake
The Brown Bear Museum sits below the observation deck and takes about twenty minutes. Yukar Village recreates an Ainu kotan next door. Finish at the Lake Kuttara Observatory, looking down on a near-circular caldera lake — free Wi-Fi reaches all the way out here.
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11:40
Down, and on to Hell Valley
Ride back down and walk fifteen minutes to Jigokudani. The boardwalk through the steaming crater and on to the Oyunuma pond and its natural foot bath makes the rest of an easy half-day.
Listing at a Glance
Read from the park's official English pages and the booking listing in August 2026. Prices and availability are set by the operator and confirmed at checkout.
- Attraction Noboribetsu Bear Park (のぼりべつクマ牧場)
- Operator Noboribetsu Cable Way Co., Kamori Kanko group
- Official site bearpark.jp — the authority on prices, hours and closures
- Booking platform Klook
- Product ID 38936
- Online price US$21.09 adult / US$10.55 child
- Gate price ¥3,200 adult / ¥1,600 child; under 3 free
- Accessible rate ¥1,600 adult / ¥1,000 child with passbook — advance reservation required
- Price last checked August 2026
- Rating 4.6 out of 5
- Review count 226 reviews, 10,000+ booked
- Review source Klook verified bookings
- What's included Return ropeway ride and park admission
- Not included Bear food (¥200–¥500 a packet), meals, transport to Noboribetsu Onsen
- Validity Any time within opening hours on the date selected
- Cancellation Non-refundable once booked
- Opening hours 9:00–17:00 from 21 Apr to 20 Oct (tickets from 8:30 in Jul–Aug); 9:30–16:30 from 21 Oct to 20 Apr
- Last ticket 16:20 in summer, 15:50 in winter
- Seasonal closures Multi-week ropeway inspection each spring; scattered weekday closures in February
- Getting there Direct highway bus from Sapporo ¥2,500–2,800; or limited express ¥4,890 plus ¥450 Donan Bus
- Payment at the gate VISA, Mastercard, JCB, AMEX, DC, NICOS, UnionPay, WeChat Pay, Alipay
- Accessibility Free wheelchairs at both stations; 20 steps before the base gate; companion required in the gondola
- Facilities Restaurant, souvenir shop, restrooms, free Wi-Fi across the summit
- Restrictions Drones prohibited
- Language Self-guided; signage in Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean
- Suits Families, first-time Hokkaido visitors, anyone already staying in Noboribetsu Onsen
- Does not suit Travellers hoping to see bears in the wild — that is Shiretoko, not here
- Pace / difficulty Easy — paved paths on the summit, some slopes and steps between the bear enclosures
- Restrooms Restrooms at both ropeway stations and inside the park
- Animal-welfare note A captive-bear facility, not a wild-bear encounter. The bears are fed by visitors from viewing decks with food sold inside the park.
Is the Ticket Worth ¥3,200?
The reviews split cleanly into two groups, and which one you fall into is predictable in advance.
What you get for the money
Four attractions and a gondola. At Japanese attraction prices that is reasonable — a comparable city zoo runs ¥600 to ¥1,000, but none of them include a mountain cable car, and the ropeway alone would justify a large share of the fare anywhere else. Families in particular get value here: the feeding decks put children within a couple of metres of an animal the size of a small car, and the duck race is the sort of low-tech nonsense that ends up in the holiday photos.
Where the disappointment comes from
Almost every unhappy visitor arrived expecting something wilder. These are captive bears in concrete-and-rock enclosures, fed by visitors from above, and no amount of framing changes that. If seeing brown bears in their own habitat is the goal, Hokkaido offers it — in Shiretoko, on the far eastern peninsula, by boat cruise or guided walk.
Booking a gondola above a spa town and hoping for that is the mistake, and it is worth naming plainly before you pay.
The weather variable
The other consistent complaint has nothing to do with bears: cloud. Several reviewers describe arriving in drizzle or snow and losing the Lake Kuttara view entirely, which removes one of the four things the ticket buys. The bears are outdoors year-round and unbothered either way, so a grey day is not a wasted trip — but if the viewpoint matters to you, look at the forecast before you fix the date, and remember the voucher is non-refundable.
Ticket Questions
Does the Noboribetsu Bear Park ticket include the ropeway?
Yes — the ropeway fare and park admission are the same ticket. The park says so on its own price page: buying the gondola buys the gate. There is no second payment at the summit.
Is it cheaper to book the ticket online?
No. The online ticket converts to roughly ¥3,100–3,150 against a ¥3,200 counter price — the difference is exchange-rate noise and can go either way. Book ahead to skip a queue on a busy day, not to save money. Full comparison here.
Can I use the ticket at any time of day?
Yes. The time slot chosen at checkout is administrative; admission is valid any time within that day's opening hours. Aim for the morning if you want the keeper events and the clearest view over Lake Kuttara.
How much is bear food?
¥200 to ¥500 (roughly $1.50 to $3.50) a packet from vending machines inside the park — it is not part of the admission ticket. Bring coins; the feeding is what most visitors remember from the day.
Can I cancel the online ticket?
No. The e-ticket is non-refundable and valid only on the date selected. If your dates are uncertain or the forecast is unsettled, paying at the counter keeps your flexibility — the window takes international cards and mobile payments.
What time does the last ticket sell?
16:20 from 21 April to 20 October and 15:50 from 21 October to 20 April, with the park closing 40 minutes later. Allow the seven-minute ride each way plus at least an hour on the mountain, so arriving less than 90 minutes before closing is cutting it fine. Full hours table.
Do any tours from Sapporo include this ticket?
None include it. Only the private day trip even stops here, and its own listing states the entrance and ropeway are an extra fee paid on the day. Every group coach out of Sapporo visits Showa Shinzan Bear Ranch near Lake Toya instead — the comparison table sets out which is which.
What Ticket Holders Say
Easy redemption at the ticket counter. Bear feeding was fun while duck race was hilarious. Nice place to spend an hour or two while visiting Noboribetsu Onsen town.
Total time to be spent is maximum 2 hours. Recommend to buy bear food, which you can throw to the bear. Duck race is pretty entertaining.
The ticket includes a round trip ride on the cable car. You can see the lake and sea from the observation deck, which is beautiful!
Excerpts from verified Klook reviews of this listing, with their original dates.
Page last reviewed August 2026. Price, rating and review count read from the listing on August 2026. Prices, availability and terms are set by the operator and confirmed at checkout.
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