Hokkaido · Japan
Where to stay in Hakodate
Hakodate is a city in Hokkaido, Japan, home to about 252,000 people. This guide covers 2 hotels in Hakodate.
- Places to stay in this guide
- 2
- Nearest airport
- HKD8 km · Hakodate Airport
- Currency
- JPYyen
- Time zone
- Asia/Tokyo
- Language
- Japanese
About
About Hakodate
Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture.
Hakodate is located on the south coast of the Southern Circuit in Hokkaido, the northernmost major island of Japan. As one of the first cities in Japan to be opened to trade, like Yokohama and Kobe, there are numerous signs of foreign influence in Hakodate, notably in architecture. Hakodate used to be the largest settlement of explorers in Hokkaido Island through and after the Meiji era, following the few years of the Republic of Ezo since 1868 (see box). The city-wide fire in 1934 significantly reduced its influence and population with many moving north.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in Hakodate
See
- Mount Hakodate
- Fort Hakodate Ruins
- Fort Goryōkaku
- Goryōkaku Tower
- Motomachi
- Kōzen Temple
- Ooyamazumi shrine
- Kanemori Red Brick Warehouses
- Hakodate Museum of Northern Peoples
- Hakodate Tropical Botanical Garden
- Seikan Ferry Memorial Museum Mashu-maru
- Hakodate Jōmon Culture Center
Do
- Port Festival
- Hakodate Christmas Fantasy
- Kameo Agriculture Village
- Hakodate Nanae Snowpark
- Yachigashira Hot Springs
- Yunokawa Onsen Footbath
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Places to stay in Hakodate
2 places to stay from the chains this guide covers, each linked to its own website.
| Place to stay |
|---|
| Toyoko Inn Hokkaido Hakodate Ekimae Asaichi hotel |
| Toyoko Inn Hokkaido Hakodate Ekimae Daimon hotel |
When to go
The best time to visit Hakodate
Hakodate has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 25 °C; September is the wettest, with about 167 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to Hakodate: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Hakodate Airport (HKD), about 7.7 km from the city centre in a straight line; Okushiri Airport (OIR, 112 km) and Aomori Airport (AOJ, 115 km) are also within reach.
Getting around
Hakodate is connected by two (practically one that branches to the SW of the city) streetcar lines and roughly two-hundred bus lines. Take a ticket or tap the IC card reader when boarding, then drop the ticket in the ticket box or tap again when getting off. Nationwide IC cards can be used in Hakodate, but using the local ICAS nimoca cuts ¥160 off bus-bus/bus-streetcar transfers, though it's probably not worth the hassle for travelers to create a card for this discount alone.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
HKD · Hakodate Airport
OIR · Okushiri Airport
AOJ · Aomori Airport
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in Hakodate
Eat
Hakodate's signature fish is squid and its signature dish is Hakodate shio rāmen (noodle with salty soup. not to be confused with shoyu ramen), a version of the ubiquitous noodle dish prepared with — you guessed it — squid stock instead of the usual pork. Nearby Mori-machi is also reputed to have Japan's finest ika-meshi, rice-stuffed squid. If you dare, eat the odori-don or ike ika-don dish, where a live squid is caught from the fish tank, its head removed, sliced and served as a side dish, and the rest placed on top of a rice bowl. The squid is so fresh that you can still see it change colours and move its tentacles on the plate as you pour the soy sauce!
Drink
There are two main drinking districts in Hakodate, Daimon, which is close to the station, and Goryōkaku, in particular Hon-Cho. Foreigners seem to be more catered to in the Goryōkaku area.
Stay safe
Visitors unused to icy conditions should be careful in winter of the icy conditions, particularly of black ice. Cars may skid in the streets and pedestrians can fall victim to it on the sidewalks. Do as the Japanese do: simply stand up and keep walking like nothing happened. As elsewhere in Japan, Hakodate is comparatively very safe when it comes to petty crime. One exception that seems to happen in Hokkaido, albeit rarely even then, is being approached by a foreigner claiming to be in distress and needing cash.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
Hakodate: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit Hakodate?
Hakodate has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. August is the warmest month, with average highs of 25 °C; September is the wettest, with about 167 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to Hakodate?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Hakodate Airport (HKD), about 7.7 km from the city centre in a straight line; Okushiri Airport (OIR, 112 km) and Aomori Airport (AOJ, 115 km) are also within reach.
What currency is used in Hakodate?
yen (JPY).
Nearby
Destinations near Hakodate
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.