VacationSelector

Athens or Kathmandu?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
Athens

Photo: Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Athens
✓ Best match
67
match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

AthensKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Athens leads by 66 points.66
Food & drink. Athens leads by 23 points.23
Culture & sights. Athens leads by 6 points.6
Nightlife. Athens leads by 44 points.44
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 6 points.6
Day trips. Athens leads by 29 points.29
Good for families. Athens leads by 38 points.38
Getting around. Athens leads by 41 points.41
Shopping & style. Athens and Kathmandu are level on 55.
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 41 points.41
Live music & performing arts. Athens leads by 36 points.36
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 3 points.3
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Kathmandu.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyAthensKathmandu
Daytime high34 °C29 °C
Night-time low24 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month7 mm384 mm
Sunshine13 hours a day4 hours a day
Sea temperature25 °CNo sea
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Athens
13
14
17
21
27
32
34
35
30
24
19
15
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Sea temperature, °C
Athens
15
15
15
16
19
22
25
26
25
23
20
17
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Athens
59
46
41
31
19
7
7
6
24
39
74
86
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Athens
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Athens
5
5
7
8
10
12
13
12
9
7
5
4
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromAthensKathmandu
New DelhiDEL
6 h 30 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
1 h 20 m
€95-237
ATH · 20 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 30 m
€286-308
ATH · 20 km
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
DohaDOH
4 h 10 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
RiyadhRUH
3 h 40 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
5 h 10 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
MumbaiBOM, NMI
6 h 45 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
2 h 30 m
€228-260
KTM · 4 km
ChengduTFU, CTU
9 h 10 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
2 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
SingaporeSIN, XSP
11 h 20 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Abu DhabiAUH
4 h 30 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 35 m
no fares
ATH · 20 km
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureAthensKathmandu
Official languageGreekNepali
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:45
Emergency number112Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation74 m1,300 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAthensKathmandu
City population643,452845,767
People per km²16,49917,121
Museums within 10 km889
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Kathmandu somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.