VacationSelector
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Seattle by Caio, Pexels License; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Seattle or Yokohama?

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 Seattle for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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. Seattle 30, Yokohama 46: Yokohama leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Seattle 66, Yokohama 72: Yokohama leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Seattle 50, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Seattle 55, Yokohama 44: Seattle leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seattle 87, Yokohama 66: Seattle leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Seattle 55, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Seattle 64, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Seattle 60, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Seattle 52, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Seattle 22, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seattle 70, Yokohama 56: Seattle leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seattle 40, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Seattle and Yokohama.

Your match

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

Seattle
54match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Yokohama
Best match
64match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SeattleYokohama

Where the figures come from

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeattleYokohama
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation40 m24 m
Main airportSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeattleYokohama
City population737,0153,757,630
People per km²1,9968,585
Museums within 10 km2738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Seattle or Yokohama 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.