VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Athens or Tokyo?

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
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • shopping
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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, Tokyo 40: Athens leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Tokyo 84: Athens leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Tokyo 68: Tokyo leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Athens and Tokyo are level on 85.
Good for families. Athens 58, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 44 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Tokyo 48: Athens leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Athens
67match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on shopping and families 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

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AthensTokyo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensTokyo
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 m6 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensTokyo
City population643,45214,264,798
People per km²16,4996,501
Museums within 10 km88192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Tokyo 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. 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.