Cross Hotel Sapporo

Rooms and decor

What sets Cross Hotel apart from the usual Sapporo hotel is a boutique design with real character. The lobby is high and open in warm brown-and-gold tones, with a tall ceiling and designer lamps overhead. All 181 rooms are individually styled across three concepts — Hi-room (bright gold), Chic (deep navy) and Natural (wood and soft green). A typical 21-sqm Hi-room has a soft bed, fast Wi-Fi, a flat-screen TV, a fridge, a work desk and a bathroom with a bidet toilet, and looks good from every angle.

Food and amenities

The Mina Mina Spa onsen on the 17th floor is the main reason reviewers single this place out. There's an indoor bath, a steam room, a volcanic-rock sauna and a relaxation area split for men and women, and guests say the hot water really does loosen up the cold and the leg-ache from a full day of walking. Free water, lemon water and towels are laid out. Reviews suggest it's best up there late, after 22:00, when it thins out and goes quiet. Guests with tattoos can't enter, per Japanese custom. Downstairs, the hache restaurant serves Hokkaido market-fresh food — breakfast is a buffet leaning hard on Hokkaido produce, with grilled fresh salmon, Hokkaido crab, ikura, congee, cold Hokkaido milk and curry soup; by evening it turns into a bar pouring cocktails and grilling seafood.

Location and getting there

You're in central Sapporo, a 6-minute walk (500m) from JR Sapporo Station and 6 minutes to Odori Park. The Tanukikoji shopping arcade is 10 minutes away, and Nijo Market — fresh fish and crab — is 12 minutes on foot. It's handy both for getting around town and for catching trains out to Hakodate or Otaru.

Things to know before booking

It's pricier than an average Sapporo city hotel, with rooms running from around $97 up to $177 a night. The onsen draws a crowd in the early evening, roughly 19:00 to 22:00, so plan your soak around that window. And if you have tattoos, the onsen is off-limits in line with standard Japanese custom — worth knowing before you book it for the bath.

Our take

Cross Hotel Sapporo suits couples, business travellers and anyone who wants a design hotel with an onsen in the middle of Sapporo. We recommend it with a clear conscience — if you've set a 4-star budget and want every night to end with a soak over the city, this is the most complete answer in town.