When going somewhere, is there any difference between e (へ) and ni (に)?

Question

Can you use へ and に interchangeably, as in 北海道へ行く and 北海道に行く? Are there any subtle differences in the use of these two?

Answer 1

For the most part, no, there's virtually no difference in usage for movement.

The main difference is NI focuses on final destination (going TO the post office and winding up there) while HE focuses on direction (going TOWARD the post office).

There are certain grammatical constructs where you NEED to have one or the other, however (giving receiving.)

Answer 2

As David R explained, when you use them as "destination particles" to mark the location like Hokkaido, you can use them interchangeably.

Some textbook such as Genki explains difference between に and へ as following:

へ　to mark a physical destination such as a home, a school, cities...

ie: 来週、北海道へ行きます。 Next week, I will go to Hokkaido.

に　to mark a physical destination AND activities an events such as a party, a movie, graduation ceremony...

ie:来週、コンサートに行きます。Next week, I will go to a concert.

To learn uses of particles, there is a good reference book called "All About Particles: A Handbook of Japanese Function Words by Kodansha

Learn more: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1568364199/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_uUflEb4H5SYZR