VacationSelector
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds

Photos: Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Santiago 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 Santiago for

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

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

Choose Sapporo for

  • wellness
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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. Santiago 12, Sapporo 28: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Santiago 60, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Santiago 52, Sapporo 40: Santiago leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Santiago 60, Sapporo 62: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Santiago 83, Sapporo 86: Sapporo leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Santiago 70, Sapporo 64: Santiago leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Santiago 57, Sapporo 72: Sapporo leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Santiago 68, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Santiago 52, Sapporo 58: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Santiago 58, Sapporo 60: Sapporo leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Santiago 55, Sapporo 44: Santiago leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Santiago 37, Sapporo 80: Sapporo leads by 43 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Santiago and Sapporo.

Your match

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

Santiago
55match

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

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 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
SantiagoSapporo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre). Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSantiagoSapporo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyChilean Peso (CLP)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCL220 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132Police 110, fire 119
Elevation575 m5 m
Main airportComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinationsNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSantiagoSapporo
City population6,257,5161,959,313
People per km²7,4681,747
Museums within 10 km5433
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Santiago 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). 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. 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.