VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Athens 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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • getting around
  • wellness
  • families

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. Athens 70, Hiroshima 30: Athens leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Hiroshima 66: Athens leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Hiroshima 60: Athens leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Hiroshima 45: Athens leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Hiroshima 62: Athens leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Hiroshima 80: Athens leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Hiroshima 52: Athens leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Hiroshima 38: Athens leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on getting around and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AthensHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensHiroshima
Official languageGreekJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation74 m3 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensHiroshima
City population643,4521,198,021
People per km²16,4991,324
Museums within 10 km8818
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.