VacationSelector
A bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay, Montego Bay
Montego BayA bright beach on turquoise water at Montego Bay
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Montego Bay by Dre Dawkcide, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Montego Bay 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 Montego Bay for

  • beaches

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • shopping

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. Montego Bay 84, Sapporo 28: Montego Bay leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Montego Bay 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Montego Bay 28, Sapporo 40: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Montego Bay 42, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montego Bay 65, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Montego Bay 50, Sapporo 64: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Montego Bay 48, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Montego Bay 20, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. Montego Bay 25, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Montego Bay 38, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montego Bay 32, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montego Bay 45, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montego Bay and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Montego Bay
44match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montego Bay in July

34 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Montego BaySapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montego Bay: 1991-2020 normals, Montego Bay / Sangster (3.7 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontego BaySapporo
Official languageEnglish, Jamaican PatoisJapanese
CurrencyJamaican Dollar (JMD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB116 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 110/112/119/911, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 110, fire 119
Elevation19 m5 m
Main airportSangster International Airport (MBJ)4 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontego BaySapporo
City population123,9941,959,313
People per km²-1,747
Museums within 10 km033
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Montego Bay or Sapporo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.