VacationSelector
La Concha beach and Monte Urgull, San Sebastian
San SebastianLa Concha beach and Monte Urgull
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: San Sebastian by Guérin Nicolas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

San Sebastian 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 Sebastian for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • nightlife

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 Sebastian 68, Sapporo 28: San Sebastian leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. San Sebastian 88, Sapporo 80: San Sebastian leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. San Sebastian 52, Sapporo 40: San Sebastian leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. San Sebastian 44, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. San Sebastian 72, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. San Sebastian 80, Sapporo 64: San Sebastian leads by 16 points.
Good for families. San Sebastian 66, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Getting around. San Sebastian and Sapporo are level on 80.
Shopping & style. San Sebastian 40, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 18 points.
Affordability. San Sebastian 32, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. San Sebastian 45, Sapporo 44: San Sebastian leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. San Sebastian 50, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: San Sebastian and Sapporo.

Your match

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

San Sebastian
60match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

San Sebastian in July

22 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
92 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
San SebastianSapporo

Where the figures come from

San Sebastian's station stands 252 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. San Sebastian: 1991-2020 normals, San Sebastian / Igueldo (6.1 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSan SebastianSapporo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation6 m5 m
Main airportSan Sebastián Airport (EAS)16 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSan SebastianSapporo
City population189,8661,959,313
People per km²3,1181,747
Museums within 10 km1433
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow San Sebastian 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.