VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Belfast 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 Belfast for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • 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. Belfast 20, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Sapporo 40: Belfast leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Sapporo 64: Belfast leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Sapporo 44: Belfast leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Belfast and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Belfast
51match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 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
BelfastSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastSapporo
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112 or 999Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3 m5 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastSapporo
City population345,0061,959,313
People per km²3,0001,747
Museums within 10 km833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Belfast 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). 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. 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.