VacationSelector
Shitennō-ji temple, Osaka
OsakaShitennō-ji temple
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Osaka by Sarmat Batagov, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Osaka or York?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose York for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Osaka leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Osaka 91, York 42: Osaka leads by 49 points.
Culture & sights. Osaka 63, York 70: York leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Osaka 80, York 36: Osaka leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Osaka 58, York 62: York leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Osaka 97, York 80: Osaka leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Osaka 88, York 60: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Osaka 90, York 72: Osaka leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Osaka 80, York 46: Osaka leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Osaka 60, York 38: Osaka leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Osaka 66, York 38: Osaka leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Osaka 66, York 34: Osaka leads by 32 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Osaka and York.

Your match

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

Osaka
Best match
73match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on culture and sights and 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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
OsakaYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Osaka: 1991-2020 normals, Osaka (1.8 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOsakaYork
Official languageJapaneseEnglish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112 or 999
Elevation20 m25 m
Main airportKansai International Airport (KIX)38 km from centre62 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureOsakaYork
City population2,751,862208,400
People per km²12,340766
Museums within 10 km4424
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
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 York 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.