VacationSelector
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Tokyo or Vail?

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 Tokyo for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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. Tokyo 40, Vail 5: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Tokyo 98, Vail 35: Tokyo leads by 63 points.
Culture & sights. Tokyo 84, Vail 10: Tokyo leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Tokyo 86, Vail 30: Tokyo leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tokyo 68, Vail 92: Vail leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Tokyo 85, Vail 45: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Tokyo 95, Vail 55: Tokyo leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Tokyo 98, Vail 62: Tokyo leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Tokyo 99, Vail 35: Tokyo leads by 64 points.
Affordability. Tokyo 48, Vail 5: Tokyo leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tokyo 86, Vail 42: Tokyo leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tokyo 78, Vail 48: Tokyo leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tokyo and Vail.

Your match

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

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Vail
39match

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.

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TokyoVail

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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. Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTokyoVail
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
Elevation6 m2,445 m
Main airportTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTokyoVail
City population14,264,7984,835
People per km²6,501400
Museums within 10 km1921
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tokyo or Vail 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.