VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Madrid 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 Madrid for

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

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Madrid 5, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Madrid and Sapporo are level on 80.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Sapporo 40: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Sapporo 62: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Sapporo 64: Madrid leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Sapporo 80: Madrid leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Sapporo 58: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Sapporo 44: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

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

Sapporo
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.

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

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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MadridSapporo

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

Before you go

MeasureMadridSapporo
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 m5 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSapporo
City population3,506,7301,959,313
People per km²5,8011,747
Museums within 10 km8833
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
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 Madrid 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). 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.