VacationSelector
The old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds, Sapporo
SapporoThe old Hokkaido Government Office and its flower beds
A painted funicular on the hillside, Valparaiso
ValparaisoA painted funicular on the hillside

Photos: Sapporo by Feri88, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Valparaiso by Maclemo, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Sapporo or Valparaiso?

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

  • wellness
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Valparaiso for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valparaiso’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, Valparaiso 36: Valparaiso leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Sapporo 80, Valparaiso 50: Sapporo leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Sapporo 40, Valparaiso 62: Valparaiso leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Sapporo 62, Valparaiso 56: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sapporo 86, Valparaiso 60: Sapporo leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Sapporo 64, Valparaiso 63: Sapporo leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Sapporo 72, Valparaiso 33: Sapporo leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Sapporo 80, Valparaiso 44: Sapporo leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Sapporo 58, Valparaiso 30: Sapporo leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Sapporo and Valparaiso are level on 60.
Live music & performing arts. Sapporo 44, Valparaiso 38: Sapporo leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sapporo 80, Valparaiso 18: Sapporo leads by 62 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sapporo and Valparaiso.

Your match

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

Sapporo
Best match
63match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

Valparaiso
46match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches 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

Valparaiso in July

15 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
71 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
SapporoValparaiso

Where the figures come from

Valparaiso 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). Valparaiso: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Viña Del Mar / Montemar (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSapporoValparaiso
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation5 m21 m
Main airportNew Chitose Airport (CTS)42 km from centre42 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)87 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSapporoValparaiso
City population1,959,313296,655
People per km²1,7476,180
Museums within 10 km3317
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sapporo or Valparaiso 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.