VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

AlUla or Hiroshima?

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 AlUla for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. AlUla 3, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Hiroshima 60: AlUla leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Hiroshima 45: Hiroshima leads by 40 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Hiroshima 62: AlUla leads by 10 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 60 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Hiroshima 52: Hiroshima leads by 37 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Hiroshima 38: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaHiroshima

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaHiroshima
Official languageArabicJapanese
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsG60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+9
Emergency number112 or 911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation692 m3 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaHiroshima
City population32,4131,198,021
People per km²-1,324
Museums within 10 km218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow AlUla or Hiroshima 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.