VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License.

Melbourne 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 Melbourne for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Osaka for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

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. Melbourne 50, Osaka 34: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Osaka 91: Osaka leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Osaka 63: Osaka leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Osaka 58: Melbourne leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Osaka 97: Osaka leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Osaka 88: Osaka leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Osaka 90: Osaka leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Osaka 80: Osaka leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Osaka 60: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Osaka 66: Melbourne leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Osaka 66: Osaka leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Osaka.

Your match

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

Melbourne
64match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 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
MelbourneOsaka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbourneOsaka
Official languageEnglishJapanese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number000Police 110, fire 119
Elevation31 m20 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbourneOsaka
City population5,350,7052,751,862
People per km²53512,340
Museums within 10 km4344
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km16
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Melbourne 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.