VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Baku or Shanghai?

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 Baku for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • nightlife
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. Baku 40, Shanghai 10: Baku leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Shanghai 25: Baku leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Shanghai 55: Baku leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 25 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BakuShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuShanghai
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguagePutonghua
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+8
Emergency number102 or 112Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation-28 m4 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuShanghai
City population2,300,50024,870,895
People per km²1,0753,922
Museums within 10 km5045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Shanghai 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.