VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Barcelona or Osaka?

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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Osaka for

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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. Barcelona 75, Osaka 34: Barcelona leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Osaka 63: Barcelona leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Osaka 80: Barcelona leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Osaka 58: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Osaka 66: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Osaka.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Barcelona
72match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Osaka
73match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaOsaka
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
Elevation9 m20 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaOsaka
City population1,731,6492,751,862
People per km²17,09412,340
Museums within 10 km9544
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km36
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Osaka 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.