VacationSelector
Botero sculptures on Plaza Botero, Medellin
MedellinBotero sculptures on Plaza Botero
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Medellin by Steffen Schmitz, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Medellin 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 Medellin for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • getting around
  • 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. Medellin 5, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Medellin 58, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Medellin 42, Sapporo 40: Medellin leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Medellin 76, Sapporo 62: Medellin leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Medellin 66, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Medellin 58, Sapporo 64: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Medellin 50, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Medellin 55, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Medellin 45, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Medellin 80, Sapporo 60: Medellin leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Medellin 42, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Medellin 30, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Medellin
51match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Medellin in July

29 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
133 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MedellinSapporo

Where the figures come from

Medellin 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. Medellin: 1958-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Medellin / Olaya Herrera (5.2 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMedellinSapporo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyColombian Peso (COP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number123Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,405 m5 m
Main airportJose Maria Córdova International Airport (MDE)19 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year19 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMedellinSapporo
City population2,529,4031,959,313
People per km²6,6441,747
Museums within 10 km1433
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 Medellin 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). 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.