VacationSelector
The opera house on Place de la Comédie, Montpellier
MontpellierThe opera house on Place de la Comédie
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Montpellier by Peter, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Montpellier 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 Montpellier for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Montpellier 64, Sapporo 28: Montpellier leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Montpellier 64, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Montpellier 60, Sapporo 40: Montpellier leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Montpellier 56, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Montpellier 72, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Montpellier 85, Sapporo 64: Montpellier leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Montpellier 62, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Montpellier 74, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Montpellier 47, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Montpellier 50, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Montpellier 63, Sapporo 44: Montpellier leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Montpellier 42, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Montpellier and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Montpellier
62match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
63match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Montpellier in July

30 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
17 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MontpellierSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Montpellier: 1991-2020 normals, Montpellier (7.8 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMontpellierSapporo
Official languageFrenchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 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
Elevation7 m5 m
Main airportMontpellier-Méditerranée Airport (MPL)8 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMontpellierSapporo
City population310,2401,959,313
People per km²5,4521,747
Museums within 10 km1433
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months1 month

Where else could you go?

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