VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Osaka or San Francisco?

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 Osaka for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Osaka 34, San Francisco 25: Osaka leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, San Francisco 82: Osaka leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, San Francisco 58: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, San Francisco 72: Osaka leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, San Francisco 66: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, San Francisco 70: Osaka leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, San Francisco 58: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, San Francisco 14: Osaka leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, San Francisco 42: Osaka leads by 24 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSan Francisco
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m16 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSan Francisco
City population2,751,862873,965
People per km²12,3401,455
Museums within 10 km4451
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Osaka or San Francisco 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.