VacationSelector
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Francisco 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 San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • getting around

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. San Francisco 25, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. San Francisco 82, Sapporo 80: San Francisco leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. San Francisco 68, Sapporo 40: San Francisco leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. San Francisco 58, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Francisco 80, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Day trips. San Francisco 72, Sapporo 64: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Good for families. San Francisco 66, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Francisco 70, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. San Francisco and Sapporo are level on 58.
Affordability. San Francisco 14, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Francisco 76, Sapporo 44: San Francisco leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Francisco 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: San Francisco and Sapporo.

Your match

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

San Francisco
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on prices 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.

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

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
San FranciscoSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan FranciscoSapporo
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation16 m5 m
Main airportSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan FranciscoSapporo
City population873,9651,959,313
People per km²1,4551,747
Museums within 10 km5133
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

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