VacationSelector
The Guggenheim Museum on the river, Bilbao
BilbaoThe Guggenheim Museum on the river
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Bilbao by José Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Bilbao 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 Bilbao for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • families
  • prices

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. Bilbao 45, Sapporo 28: Bilbao leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Bilbao 81, Sapporo 80: Bilbao leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Bilbao 62, Sapporo 40: Bilbao leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bilbao 54, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bilbao 75, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Bilbao 78, Sapporo 64: Bilbao leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Bilbao 55, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Bilbao 79, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bilbao 47, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Bilbao 44, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bilbao 53, Sapporo 44: Bilbao leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bilbao 33, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bilbao and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Bilbao
59match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bilbao in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
54 mmrain in the month
6 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BilbaoSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bilbao: 1991-2020 normals, Bilbao / Sondica (4.1 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBilbaoSapporo
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
Elevation19 m5 m
Main airportBilbao Airport (BIO)5 km from centre73 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBilbaoSapporo
City population351,1241,959,313
People per km²8,4401,747
Museums within 10 km1733
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month1 month

Where else could you go?

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