VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • 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. Biarritz 68, Sapporo 28: Biarritz leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Sapporo 64: Biarritz leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Biarritz and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Biarritz
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzSapporo
Official languageFrenchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 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
Elevation0 m5 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzSapporo
City population26,2061,959,313
People per km²2,2401,747
Museums within 10 km833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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