JR Tower Hotel Nikko Sapporo

Step off the airport train and ride the escalators straight up to the front desk. JR Tower Hotel Nikko sits directly above Sapporo Station, so the board bag never has to cross a slushy pavement on the night you land. The rooms are high in the tower, and on a clear morning you can see the snow on the hills west of the city before breakfast.

The reason to pay up is the spa on the 22nd floor. Prau Blanc runs on sodium chloride water from a spring under the station's south exit, and both sides have a Finnish sauna and a cold plunge. Hotel guests pay ¥2,150 and can go back as often as they like until the 06:00–09:00 morning session ends. Tattoos are refused at the door.

Teine is about 40 minutes away by car and Kokusai a little over an hour, so this works best on the first and last nights of a trip. Expect some construction noise for now. The station's redevelopment is running for years, and the road outside the main entrance is closed until around March 2031.