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Photo by Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Best time to visit Sapporo
Japan · East Asia
All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.
The year in Sapporo
Tap a month for its page
- JanJSapporo in January: avoid
- FebFSapporo in February: avoid
- MarMSapporo in March: avoid
- AprASapporo in April: good
- MayMSapporo in May: sweet spot
- JunJSapporo in June: sweet spot
- JulJSapporo in July: sweet spot
- AugASapporo in August: good, busy
- SepSSapporo in September: sweet spot
- OctOSapporo in October: good
- NovNSapporo in November: ok
- DecDSapporo in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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Flights from
Flights
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Where are you flying from? Choose your city for its flights and fares.
Book with the airline
Where to stay
Book direct
Luxury
Things to do
Car hire
Rent direct
Travel insurance
Check whether your bank card or home insurance already covers this trip.
If the trip needs a visa, the travel agent or visa centre usually sells the cover it asks for.
Mobile data (eSIM)
Your own plan's EU roaming may already cover this.
Renting a pocket Wi-Fi is the other common way to stay connected.
These are sites people in book with. Each opens in a new tab, on the site's own pages.
Things to do in Sapporo
- Sapporo Snow Festival This is Sapporo's largest event.
- Sapporo TV Tower A tourist trap carbon copy of the Eiffel Tower with an observation deck 90 m high.
- Ōdōri Park Sapporo's most famous park, it is in the center of town and is considered to be a symbol…
- Sapporo Beer Museum The museum is not very big and while the printed descriptions on the displays are in…
- Moerenuma Park A popular excursion for Japanese families…
- Hokkaido Shrine Shinto shrine in Chūō-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan
- Sapporo Factory / former Kaitakushi Brewery Sapporo Factory occupies the site of the Kaitakushi Brewery…
Tours and tickets in Sapporo
Each site opens on its own search: choose your dates there. A few open on their home page, where you type the place too. Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you; most pay nothing, and what a site pays never decides whether it is listed or where. How we rank
Sights and their lines from Wikivoyage (Sapporo), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0, and Wikidata; in order of how often each one's Wikipedia article was read on phones in the last 12 months.
Month by month
No fare history for this route yet, so this ranking is climate and crowds only — the price column will fill in as the scanner collects.
| Month | Max °C | Rain days | Humidity | Sun h/day | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -3° | 10d | 78% | 5.8h | avoid | bitter cold: -3C daily max |
| Feb | -2° | 11d | 77% | 6.9h | avoid | bitter cold: -2C daily max |
| Mar | 4° | 9d | 77% | 7.9h | avoid | bitter cold: 4C daily max |
| Apr | 12° | 10d | 71% | 9.0h | good | 12C max, 10 rainy days |
| May | 17° | 10d | 76% | 9.4h | sweet spot | 17C max, 10 rainy days |
| Jun | 21° | 11d | 80% | 10.0h | sweet spot | 21C max, 11 rainy days |
| Jul | 26° | 8d | 82% | 10.1h | sweet spot | 26C max, 8 rainy days |
| Aug | 26° | 10d | 82% | 9.0h | goodbusy | busier than usual |
| Sep | 22° | 9d | 79% | 8.7h | sweet spot | 22C max, 9 rainy days |
| Oct | 16° | 10d | 77% | 7.8h | good | 16C max, 10 rainy days |
| Nov | 9° | 11d | 75% | 6.2h | ok | 9C max, 11 rainy days |
| Dec | 0° | 10d | 75% | 5.6h | avoid | bitter cold: 0C daily max |
Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.
Weather read at the centre, 42 km from the airport (CTS): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.
How busy it gets
Then and now
Sapporo's March days now average 4.2°C, 3.3°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 10 of 12 months are clearly warmer.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981–90 | -4.3° | -3.4° | 1.0° | 8.8° | 15.0° | 19.2° | 22.8° | 24.9° | 20.2° | 13.7° | 5.9° | -0.7° |
| 2017–26 | -2.5° | -1.5° | 4.2° | 11.9° | 17.4° | 21.2° | 25.7° | 26.0° | 22.3° | 15.8° | 8.6° | 0.3° |
| Change | +1.8° | +1.9° | +3.3° | +3.1° | +2.4° | +2.0° | +2.9° | +1.1° | +2.1° | +2.0° | +2.7° | +1.0° |
The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.
Getting there
How far Sapporo is, and what it costs, depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.
- from Tokyo
- from Seoul
- from Taipei
- from Hong Kong
- from Manila
- from Ho Chi Minh City
- from Bangkok
- from Kolkata
Open in Rome2rio for every way from to Sapporo, flying or not.
Before you go
Type A and B plugs at 100 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Yen. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions. US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Japan: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
Being there
On arrival
- Paying — Cards are widely taken in cities, but carry cash for small restaurants, inns and rural areas. Suica and PASMO also pay in many shops, and PayPay QR codes are common.
- UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
- Tipping — Not done in restaurants or taxis; some hotels and restaurants add a 10% service charge.
Getting around Sapporo
- Apps — Rides: GO, DiDi, S.RIDE, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: LINE. Ride apps here hail ordinary licensed taxis; private-car rideshare is limited to small trials.
Most unusually for a Japanese city, Sapporo is logically organized thanks to its strict grid system. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Sapporo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Help
- Emergency — police 110 · ambulance and fire 119.
TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.
Your embassy — : how to reach your embassy or consulate abroad. A guess from your city, : a city is not a passport.
Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.
Sources (21)
- gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/japan/getting-help
- japan.travel/en/plan/getting-around/taxis
- japan.travel/en/plan/cashless-payments-in-japan
- japan.travel/en/plan/credit-cards
- japan.travel/en/plan/tipping-in-japan
- japan.travel/en/guide/how-to-travel-by-train-and-bus-in-japan
- japan-guide.com/e/e2359_credit_card_tap.html
- visa.co.jp/pay-with-visa/featured-technologies/contactless/merchants-transit.html
- apps.apple.com/us/app/go-taxi-app-for-japan-visit/id1254341709
- uber.com/global/en/cities/tokyo
- developers.google.com/maps/coverage
- apple.com/ios/feature-availability
- en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Japan
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/bus/howtoride_bus.html
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/ic_card.html
- www2.city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/webguide/en/ticket/regular_1day_card_comm.html
- city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/page/0000240757.html
- city.kyoto.lg.jp/kotsu/page/0000334479.html
- westjr.co.jp/travel-information/en/tickets-passes/oneway/haruka
- pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2286608
- nipl.com/uploads/NPCI_International_signs_Mo_U_with_NTT_DATA_Japan_to_enable_UPI_acceptance_at_merchant_locations_in_Japan_14_Oct_002_a292d8d769.pdf
Sapporo in pictures
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Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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663highland, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons
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Reinhold Möller Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Reinhold Möller Ermell, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What Sapporo is like
Sapporo (札幌) is the capital and largest city of the northern island of Hokkaido. One of Japan's newest and most orderly cities, it has little in the way of traditional architecture. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth seeing
- Clock Tower (時計台 Tokeidai) (Close to Ōdōri Station.). This rather diminutive building has become a symbol of Sapporo, mostly by being the oldest building still standing. More on Wikivoyage
- Worth doing
- Sapporo Snow Festival (雪祭り Yuki Matsuri). First week of Feb. This is Sapporo's largest event. More on Wikivoyage
- Getting in
- Sapporo is Hokkaido's main transport hub. Sapporo (SPK IATA for all airports) is served by two airports. More on Wikivoyage
- Staying safe
- No smoking. Downtown Sapporo is a smoke-free area. Smoking on public streets and in public buildings will get you fined, should the police be inclined, so please use smoking areas in cafes. More on Wikivoyage
From the Wikivoyage article on Sapporo, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.
Around Sapporo
Also in Japan
- Hiroshima best Apr, Jun, Sep
- Kyoto best May, Jun, Sep
- Mount Fuji best Apr, May, Oct
- Niseko best Mar, Jun, Jul
- Okinawa best Feb, Apr, Oct
- Osaka best Apr, May, Jun
- Tokyo best May, Jun, Nov
Nearby
- Harbin China · 1,205 km
- Seoul South Korea · 1,361 km
- Busan South Korea · 1,368 km
- Beijing China · 2,101 km
Kind of place
Sapporo is in Japan, East Asia. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.
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