VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Sapporo?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Alicante for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Alicante’s own page.

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sapporo’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Alicante 82, Sapporo 28: Alicante leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Sapporo 40: Alicante leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Sapporo 64: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Alicante and Sapporo are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Sapporo.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Alicante
59match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sapporo in July

25 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteSapporo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3 m5 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteSapporo
City population366,2211,959,313
People per km²1,8191,747
Museums within 10 km833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Sapporo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.