VacationSelector
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Keystone 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 Keystone for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • 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. Keystone 5, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Keystone 27, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Keystone 7, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Keystone 12, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Keystone 93, Sapporo 86: Keystone leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Keystone 55, Sapporo 64: Sapporo leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Keystone 66, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Keystone 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Keystone 22, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Keystone 12, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Keystone 22, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Keystone 32, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 48 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Keystone and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Keystone
34match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 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
KeystoneSapporo

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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. Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKeystoneSapporo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation2,796 m5 m
Main airportDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKeystoneSapporo
City population1,3691,959,313
People per km²131,747
Museums within 10 km033
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Keystone 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.