VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • beaches

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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. Hiroshima 30, Sapporo 28: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Sapporo 40: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Sapporo 64: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 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: Hiroshima and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSapporo
Official languageJapaneseJapanese
CurrencyYen (JPY)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3 m5 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSapporo
City population1,198,0211,959,313
People per km²1,3241,747
Museums within 10 km1833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Sapporo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.