Editors' Selection — Sapporo
Photo: Dansetsu Sapporo
Look for a sauna in Sapporo and your options split between the city center and Jozankei, an onsen town in a gorge well away from the urban area. Even within the city of Sapporo, the two differ in how long it takes to get there and how you spend your time. Most of these saunas are also inside hotels and inns, and some are open only to overnight guests, so it pays to think about them together with where you’ll stay. From a capsule hotel in the heart of the city to inns in the mountains where you can enjoy a sauna alongside an onsen, our editors have chosen places that each have their own character.
Hokkaido Sapporo City
Four sauna rooms, their heat set apart by color and light
A sauna built entirely of hinoki, where the fresh scent of the wood surrounds you and automatic löyly sends out bursts of hot steam at regular intervals, warming you to the core the way a sauna in Finland does. Under a warm, soft glow, the gentle, steady heat draws you into deep relaxation.
A steam room set apart by its all-white interior and a refreshing aroma. Dense white steam wraps gently around your whole body, letting tired eyes and a busy mind rest while you slowly warm through. With the pleasant scent and soft heat, it makes for a blissful spell of detox.
A high-temperature sauna with heat that stands out as especially powerful even in the Jozankei area. Bathed in deep red light, the room evokes the energetic warmth of the sun. The hard-hitting heat reaches deep into body and mind, and a good, cleansing sweat leaves you thoroughly refreshed.
A mild sauna with a soft yellow interior inspired by Hokkaido’s pasturelands. Its gentle, gradual warmth means even those who find intense heat hard going can relax at ease. Feel the energy of the land and lose track of time as you unwind.
A dark, otherworldly space wrapped in dreamlike lighting and the scent of aroma oils. As your flushed body gently cools down, you may find yourself closing your eyes and sinking into deep meditation. Senses sharpened in the silence lead you to an exceptional state of totonou, a deep, blissful calm, unlike anything before.
A cooling room steeped in deep blue, where light that mimics rippling water sways quietly. The space feels cool to the eye as well, and your heated body slowly unwinds. A cool aroma settles the lingering warmth, and you are filled with a freshness like standing at the water’s edge.
Editors' comment
Bathed in deep red light, the Red Hot Sauna is a dry sauna whose intense heat draws out sweat fast. The Yellow Sauna, wrapped in yellow, has a gentler heat that warms you slowly. The Woody Sauna, built entirely of hinoki, has automatic löyly, and the all-white White Steam Room fills with aroma-scented steam. The colors and light you see tell you how strong the heat in each room is. After the cold plunge, you can rest in a blue cooling room that reflects the shimmer of water, or a black cooling room where light and aroma drift through the dark. The hotel also has a panoramic open-air onsen bath overlooking the gorge.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
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Hokkaido Sapporo City
A wooden sauna room and cooling off in the open air, wrapped in the quiet of the gorge
The dry sauna in the main bathhouse. The dry heat quietly strokes your skin and slowly works its way deep into your core. Wrapped in wood, the room is softly lit and filled with the stillness you’d expect of an inn in a valley. As you steady your breathing in a space free of needless sound, the sweat flows smoothly and even your tense thoughts come undone. The time spent giving yourself over to the heat is a luxury found only at this inn.
Editors' comment
An inn for overnight guests only, set in the gorge of Jozankei Onsen. The dry sauna in the main bathhouse is surrounded by wood, kept dim and calm, with little stray noise. After a slow sweat in the dry heat, the cold plunge pulls the body taut, and then you step outside to let the clear Jozankei air wash over you. Heat, cold and open air follow one another in a single unbroken flow amid the quiet of the mountains. The onsen is a chloride spring, and the four private open-air baths can be used free of charge as often as you like whenever they’re available.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
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Hokkaido Sapporo City
Two stoves, automatic and pour-your-own, to choose your heat
A spacious room with not one but two types of heater that sauna lovers swear by. You can enjoy both automatic löyly and löyly you pour yourself, setting the humidity and heat to your liking. Powerful heat envelops the whole body, bringing on a supreme sweat that breaks out all at once, even in a short session.
Editors' comment
A single sauna room holds two stoves, one with automatic löyly and one for löyly you pour yourself. You can wait for the steam to rise on its own, or pour water over the stones to add humidity yourself. The heat is strong, and you’ll sweat even in a short stint. There are two cold plunges, one cool enough to linger in and a frigid one known as a “single,” a cold plunge below 10°C (50°F), and you can choose between them or go back and forth. The bathing area is lined with plenty of chairs you can stretch out on, where you can rest gazing up at driftwood suspended in midair. It is a men-only capsule hotel, with a dining area and a gym inside.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
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Hokkaido Sapporo City
A Finnish sauna beside old-growth forest, where you pour water on the stones
An authentic Finnish sauna. With löyly you pour yourself, you can adjust the humidity and the heat you feel to your liking. When you pour water over the sauna stones, rich steam rises and wraps your whole body in a gentle, soothing heat, drawing you into deep relaxation without any sense of breathlessness. Sweat slowly in the stillness and enjoy a superb totonou, that state of deep, settled relaxation.
Editors' comment
On Jozankei grounds that seem to run straight into the old-growth forest sits a Finnish-style sauna room. Here you can pour water over the heated sauna stones yourself, adjusting the humidity and how hot it feels by the amount of steam. The rising steam wraps softly around the whole body, with little stuffiness. How hot it gets is up to you. After the sauna, you can soak in a chloride spring in an open-air bath surrounded by old-growth forest, listening to birdsong and rustling leaves.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
This page contains affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra.
Hokkaido Sapporo City
Automatic löyly with windows over Sapporo
An airy dry sauna whose windows look down over the city of Sapporo. Automatic löyly runs at set intervals, filling the room at once with hot steam. The heat you feel climbs sharply, and powerful warmth wraps your whole body, bringing on a pleasant sweat. In a room scented with wood, you can gaze at the beautiful view and refresh both body and mind.
A wet sauna that is easy on the body and warms you gradually. Rich humidity gently envelops the skin, so even those who find the strong heat of a dry sauna hard going can stay comfortable. The warm mist eases tension throughout the body, letting you sink into deep relaxation and lose track of time.
Editors' comment
Set in a spa on an upper floor, its sauna room with automatic löyly has windows looking down over Sapporo. Steam is released at regular intervals, sending the temperature you feel soaring. You sweat amid the scent of wood with the city spread out before your eyes. The cold plunge is kept at a steady temperature by a chiller, so its chill doesn’t change with the seasons. Afterward you can rest on the chairs in the space for cooling off in the open air. There is also a mist sauna that warms you gently with humidity. The onsen is a chloride spring rising from deep underground, and the city is visible from the glass-walled indoor bath too.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
This page contains affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra.
Hokkaido Sapporo City
A groundwater cold plunge right outside the sauna door
An authentic Finnish-style dry sauna. Here you can pour water over the hot sauna stones yourself for löyly, and the rising steam sends the felt temperature in the room soaring. Crisp heat and pleasant humidity wrap around the body, bringing on a deep sweat in a short time. In a hushed room where you can turn inward, the fatigue of body and mind slowly melts away in a supreme detox.
A comfortable mist sauna filled with soft vapor. Even those who find a hot dry sauna hard going will rarely feel short of breath here, as the body warms gently and gradually. A fine mist moistens the skin and envelops you from head to toe. With every deep breath you relax further, set free from everyday tension for an unhurried, soothing stretch of time.
Editors' comment
Step out of the sauna room and a cold plunge of groundwater is right in front of you. The distance from heat to cold is short, so you can move into the local water before your body cools down. The sauna room is Finnish-style, with löyly you pour yourself over the heated sauna stones. As the steam rises, the temperature you feel jumps, and the dry heat and the moisture together draw out the sweat. There is also a mist sauna that warms you gently in soft vapor. The onsen is a chloride spring from its own source, and every guest room faces the gorge.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
This page contains affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra.
Hokkaido Sapporo City
A sauna room with no timer, heated by Hidaka peridotite
An authentic Finnish sauna supervised by Dai Matsuo, known as “Totonoe Oyakata.” A stove stacked with Mitsuiwa peridotite from Hidaka, Hokkaido gives off powerful heat, and automatic löyly fills the room with soft steam. Rare Western red cedar on the walls releases a sweet, gentle scent that draws you into deep relaxation. On benches built high you take the heat in fully, and in a quiet room with deliberately no timer you can tune in to your own senses at leisure.
A private sauna where no one will disturb you, found in the Sauna Suite and the Sauna Premier Twin. You pour the löyly yourself whenever you like, shaping the humidity and the feel of the heat to your taste. The suite also has its own cold plunge with a chiller and a cool-down area, so you can have the finest sauna experience entirely to yourself without ever leaving your room — a blissful space.
Editors' comment
The stove is stacked with peridotite from Hidaka, Hokkaido, and steam from the automatic löyly fills the sauna room. The walls are lined with rare western red cedar, giving off a sweet, gentle wood scent. The benches are set high so you can take in the heat fully. There is deliberately no timer, so you decide when to leave by how your body feels rather than by the clock. The cold plunge right beside it is deep, and water purified by charcoal set into the wall runs down the wall into it. You can also step straight out to cool off in the open air. The main bathhouse was designed by an architect known for designing bathhouses, and only overnight guests can use it.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
This page contains affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra.
Chosen by our editors from facilities that have granted us publication permission. We do not rank them.
