VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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. Aspen 6, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Sapporo 86: Aspen leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Sapporo 64: Sapporo leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 55 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Sapporo 44: Aspen leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AspenSapporo

Where the figures come from

Aspen has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenSapporo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation2,405 m5 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenSapporo
City population7,0041,959,313
People per km²7001,747
Museums within 10 km233
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.