VacationSelector
A cobbled street of painted houses in the old town, San Miguel de Allende
San Miguel de AllendeA cobbled street of painted houses in the old town
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: San Miguel de Allende by Russ Bowling, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Miguel de Allende 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 Miguel de Allende for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on San Miguel de Allende’s own page.

Choose Sapporo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • 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 Miguel de Allende 4, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. San Miguel de Allende 62, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. San Miguel de Allende 62, Sapporo 40: San Miguel de Allende leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. San Miguel de Allende 38, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Miguel de Allende 40, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 46 points.
Day trips. San Miguel de Allende 77, Sapporo 64: San Miguel de Allende leads by 13 points.
Good for families. San Miguel de Allende 32, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 40 points.
Getting around. San Miguel de Allende 48, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. San Miguel de Allende 55, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. San Miguel de Allende 50, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Miguel de Allende 40, Sapporo 44: Sapporo leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Miguel de Allende 66, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Miguel de Allende and Sapporo.

Your match

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

San Miguel de Allende
48match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Miguel de Allende in July

29 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
132 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
San Miguel de AllendeSapporo

Where the figures come from

San Miguel de Allende's temperatures are measured 54 km from the centre, at Guanajuato, Gto..

San Miguel de Allende 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. San Miguel de Allende: 1991-2020 normals, Guanajuato, Gto. (53.7 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSapporo
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec MayaJapanese
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6UTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation1,900 m5 m
Main airportGuanajuato International Airport (BJX)77 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan Miguel de AllendeSapporo
City population69,8111,959,313
People per km²-1,747
Museums within 10 km233
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Miguel de Allende 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.