VacationSelector
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow

Photos: Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sapporo or Steamboat Springs?

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 Sapporo for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Steamboat Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Steamboat Springs’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. Sapporo 28, Steamboat Springs 7: Sapporo leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Sapporo 80, Steamboat Springs 30: Sapporo leads by 50 points.
Culture & sights. Sapporo 40, Steamboat Springs 14: Sapporo leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Sapporo 62, Steamboat Springs 20: Sapporo leads by 42 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sapporo 86, Steamboat Springs 88: Steamboat Springs leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Sapporo 64, Steamboat Springs 12: Sapporo leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Sapporo 72, Steamboat Springs 62: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Sapporo 80, Steamboat Springs 46: Sapporo leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Sapporo 58, Steamboat Springs 22: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Sapporo 60, Steamboat Springs 17: Sapporo leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sapporo 44, Steamboat Springs 28: Sapporo leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sapporo 80, Steamboat Springs 70: Sapporo leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sapporo and Steamboat Springs.

Your match

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

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Steamboat Springs
35match

Wins on 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.

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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SapporoSteamboat Springs

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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. Sapporo: 1991-2020 normals, Sapporo (2.2 km from centre). Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSapporoSteamboat Springs
Official languageJapanese-
CurrencyYen (JPY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119911
Elevation5 m2,052 m
Main airportNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSapporoSteamboat Springs
City population1,959,31313,224
People per km²1,747503
Museums within 10 km330
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sapporo or Steamboat Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.