Best Onsen Ryokan & Hotels in Sapporo: 7 Editors’ Picks

Editors' comment

This hotel in Jozankei Onsen has its own source, Hoe-no-Izumi, which the previous owner spent many years finding. It is a chloride spring that retains heat so well it is also called “the hot water of heat.” It is an onsen that leaves you feeling warm to the core long after you get out. Every room faces the valley, and many have a view bath by the window drawing water from the same source. Beyond the window, the valley is green or snow-covered depending on the season. The main bathhouse also has an indoor bath with large windows and an open-air bath within earshot of the mountain stream. Guests can soak in this onsen in their own room as much as they like, late at night or early in the morning. You can enjoy this long-warming onsen again and again without worrying about other eyes. That is what sets this inn apart.

Editors' comment

Within walking distance of Susukino Station, this hotel has a main bathhouse that blends Japanese and modern design. Both the men’s and women’s sides have a dry sauna, and beyond it the cold plunge is a tub built of wood. The scent of wood rises through the cold. That cold plunge is what sets this place apart. The women’s main bathhouse has ReFa FINE BUBBLE PURE shower heads, and the changing room is stocked with towels and toiletries. The rooms are shoes-off. On the other hand, our research turned up no information on the source or the spring’s composition, so this is not an inn to choose for the richness of its onsen. Its value lies in being close enough to come back from Susukino and wash off the day right away.

Editors' comment

The onsen at Jozankei View Hotel is a sodium chloride spring that holds heat well. It is said to warm a chilled body to the core. You can soak in this water at two different heights. The basement main bathhouse, Yusuikyo, has many baths, including an open-air bath and a Jacuzzi. In the open-air bath, birdsong and the sound of wind through the forest feel close at hand. The panoramic open-air bath Seiten on the top floor sits 60 m (197 ft) above the ground, with the valley spread out below. At night, a sky full of stars opens overhead. The sauna area, renewed in 2024, has six saunas and cooling rooms in total, which you can combine with the onsen.

Editors' comment

The main bathhouse is filled with a clear, colorless sodium chloride spring with a mellow saltiness. The salt left on your skin slows the evaporation of sweat, warming you to the core. Beyond the indoor bath, where light pours in through high ceilings and large windows, lies an open-air bath surrounded by the old-growth forest of Jozankei, where you can hear birdsong and the rustle of leaves. The detached villas and some of the rooms come with an open-air bath on a wide wooden deck. Bathing in the onsen whenever you like, undisturbed by other guests, is a privilege reserved for those who stay. There is also a Finnish-style sauna where you can pour your own löyly.

Editors' comment

This hotel lets you enjoy a natural chloride onsen, drawn from deep underground, on a high floor overlooking downtown Sapporo. The water holds heat well, so warmth lingers deep in your body even after you leave the bath. The glass-walled indoor bath looks out over the cityscape, and in the semi-open-air bath you can feel the cool breeze from outside on your skin. There is also a herbal bath that changes daily. The men’s bath has a ceramic urn bath filled with water poured straight from the source without recirculation. The women’s bath has a reclining bath. There are two saunas, one with automatic löyly and one mist sauna, and the cold plunge is kept at a steady chill by a cooling system. It’s a place where you can stay in the heart of the city and still be warmed to the core by an onsen.

Editors' comment

This is a men-only cabin hotel, and the star is the sauna. It has two stoves, one with automatic löyly and one where you pour the löyly yourself, so you can set the humidity and heat as you like. There are two cold plunges: one with water below 10°C (50°F) and one you can linger in. Between them sit a hot bath with a floating log and the Galaxy Bath, a skin-temperature bath close to body temperature. From the reclining chairs in the bathing area, you can see driftwood suspended in midair. There is also a restaurant and a gym, so if you stay you can spend the whole day inside. Our research found no information on the source or the spring’s composition, so it’s more accurate to see this as a sauna you can sleep at than as an onsen inn.

Editors' comment

On the ground floor of this hotel in Chuo Ward, Sapporo, is a main bathhouse designed by Kentaro Imai, a leading designer of sento. The space, built of wood and stone, is filled with a smooth alkaline simple spring. There is no information indicating that the water is fed straight from the source or how concentrated it is; its appeal lies in how soft it feels on the skin. The sauna was supervised by Dai Matsuo. It has a stove stacked with peridotite from Hidaka and automatic löyly, and there is no timer. The sauna suites have their own cold plunge with a chiller, so at night and in the morning you can go back and forth between sauna and cold plunge without leaving your room.

Editors' comment

This inn stands in the valley of Jozankei Onsen, and its onsen is a clear, colorless chloride spring. The salt slows the evaporation of sweat, so the warmth lasts long after you get out. There are many places to soak in this water. The main bathhouse has an indoor hinoki bath and a rock bath, and outdoors there are a reclining bath, a hot-water cascade and a ceramic urn bath. The four private open-air baths, made of hinoki, ceramic, hiba and stone, need no reservation, and you can use them free of charge as many times as you like whenever they are open. Close the door, and there is nothing but the valley breeze and the sound of the trees. Every room also has its own hiba bath of natural onsen water, so you can soak in your room both at night and in the morning.