VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Madrid or Osaka?

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 Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Osaka for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Osaka’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. Madrid 5, Osaka 34: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Osaka 63: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Osaka 80: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Osaka 58: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Osaka 66: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Osaka.

Your match

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

Madrid
66match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Osaka in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
175 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MadridOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridOsaka
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
Elevation663 m20 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridOsaka
City population3,506,7302,751,862
People per km²5,80112,340
Museums within 10 km8844
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km46
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Osaka 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). 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. 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.