VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak, Snowbird
SnowbirdThe red aerial tram nearing the top of Hidden Peak

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

Osaka or Snowbird?

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

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Snowbird for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Snowbird’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, Snowbird 5: Osaka leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Snowbird 20: Osaka leads by 71 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Snowbird 5: Osaka leads by 58 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Snowbird 9: Osaka leads by 71 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Snowbird 92: Snowbird leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Snowbird 47: Osaka leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Snowbird 42: Osaka leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Snowbird 40: Osaka leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Snowbird 8: Osaka leads by 72 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Snowbird 15: Osaka leads by 45 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Snowbird 8: Osaka leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Snowbird 40: Osaka leads by 26 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Snowbird
28match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Snowbird in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaSnowbird

Where the figures come from

Snowbird has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Snowbird: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSnowbird
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-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation20 m2,479 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)36 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSnowbird
City population2,751,862-
People per km²12,340-
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km60
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Osaka or Snowbird 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.