VacationSelector
The Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken, Interlaken
InterlakenThe Aare at Unterseen, Interlaken
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Interlaken by Roy Egloff, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Interlaken 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 Interlaken for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • 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. Interlaken 30, Sapporo 28: Interlaken leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Interlaken 25, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 55 points.
Culture & sights. Interlaken 8, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Interlaken 15, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Interlaken 97, Sapporo 86: Interlaken leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Interlaken 78, Sapporo 64: Interlaken leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Interlaken and Sapporo are level on 72.
Getting around. Interlaken and Sapporo are level on 80.
Shopping & style. Interlaken 22, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Interlaken 8, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Interlaken 15, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Interlaken 40, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Interlaken and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Interlaken
41match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Interlaken in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
126 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
InterlakenSapporo

Where the figures come from

Interlaken has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Interlaken: 2005-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Meiringen / Unterbach (19.3 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureInterlakenSapporo
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshJapanese
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCJ230 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
Elevation571 m5 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)100 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureInterlakenSapporo
City population6,1231,959,313
People per km²1,4241,747
Museums within 10 km333
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Interlaken 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.