VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Barcelona or Havana?

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 Barcelona for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Havana for

  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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. Barcelona 75, Havana 64: Barcelona leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Havana 40: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Havana 77: Barcelona leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Havana 60: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Havana 34: Barcelona leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Havana 38: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Havana 34: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Havana 38: Barcelona leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Havana 30: Barcelona leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Havana 58: Havana leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Havana 74: Havana leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Havana 22: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Havana.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on prices and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaHavana

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaHavana
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation9 m59 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaHavana
City population1,731,6492,492,618
People per km²17,0943,423
Museums within 10 km9512
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Havana 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. 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 figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.