VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Osaka or Steamboat Springs?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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, Steamboat Springs 7: Osaka leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, Steamboat Springs 30: Osaka leads by 61 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, Steamboat Springs 14: Osaka leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, Steamboat Springs 20: Osaka leads by 60 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, Steamboat Springs 12: Osaka leads by 85 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, Steamboat Springs 62: Osaka leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, Steamboat Springs 46: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, Steamboat Springs 22: Osaka leads by 58 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, Steamboat Springs 17: Osaka leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, Steamboat Springs 28: Osaka leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, Steamboat Springs 70: Steamboat Springs leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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.

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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 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
OsakaSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaSteamboat Springs
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 m2,052 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaSteamboat Springs
City population2,751,86213,224
People per km²12,340503
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 Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.