VacationSelector
Rathausquai on the Reuss, Lucerne
LucerneRathausquai on the Reuss
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Lucerne by ILOVESwitzerland, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lucerne 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 Lucerne for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • 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. Lucerne 35, Sapporo 28: Lucerne leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Lucerne 35, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Lucerne 58, Sapporo 40: Lucerne leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Lucerne 28, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lucerne 92, Sapporo 86: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Lucerne 78, Sapporo 64: Lucerne leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Lucerne 66, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lucerne 86, Sapporo 80: Lucerne leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Lucerne 46, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Lucerne 8, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lucerne 66, Sapporo 44: Lucerne leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lucerne 46, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lucerne and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Lucerne
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lucerne in July

24 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
141 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 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
LucerneSapporo

Where the figures come from

Lucerne 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.

Lucerne's sunshine is measured 42 km from the centre, at Zurich Town / Ville..

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lucerne: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Emmen (4.2 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLucerneSapporo
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
Elevation436 m5 m
Main airportZürich Airport (ZRH)49 km from centre226 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureLucerneSapporo
City population86,2341,959,313
People per km²2,9631,747
Museums within 10 km1433
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
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 Lucerne 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.