VacationSelector

Barcelona 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 Sagrada Família, Barcelona
Barcelona

Photo: Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

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

Your match

Barcelona
✓ Best match
72
match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on prices and wellness 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.

BarcelonaKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Barcelona leads by 71 points.71
Food & drink. Barcelona leads by 27 points.27
Culture & sights. Barcelona leads by 4 points.4
Nightlife. Barcelona leads by 46 points.46
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona leads by 2 points.2
Day trips. Barcelona leads by 24 points.24
Good for families. Barcelona leads by 56 points.56
Getting around. Barcelona leads by 55 points.55
Shopping & style. Barcelona leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 53 points.53
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona leads by 42 points.42
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 7 points.7
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona 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
JulyBarcelonaKathmandu
Daytime high28 °C29 °C
Night-time low21 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month27 mm384 mm
Sunshine10 hours a day4 hours a day
Sea temperature24 °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
Barcelona
14
14
16
19
22
26
28
29
26
22
18
15
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Sea temperature, °C
Barcelona
14
13
13
14
17
21
24
25
24
21
17
15
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Barcelona
41
32
40
47
44
27
27
51
83
82
45
36
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Barcelona
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Barcelona
5
5
7
8
8
9
10
9
7
6
4
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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromBarcelonaKathmandu
DohaDOH
6 h 25 m
€282-445
2 stops
BCN · 13 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 45 m
€369-388
BCN · 13 km
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
Kuwait CityKWI
5 h 45 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
4 h 55 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
3 h 15 m
€173-293
BCN · 13 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
Hong KongHKG
12 h 30 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
RiyadhRUH
5 h 55 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
5 h 10 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
SeoulICN, GMP
11 h 55 m
€459-799
2 stops
BCN · 13 km
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Abu DhabiAUH
6 h 45 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
11 h 0 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
12 h 15 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
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 2026-08 to 2026-10, 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

MeasureBarcelonaKathmandu
Official languageSpanishNepali
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:45
Emergency number112Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation9 m1,300 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaKathmandu
City population1,731,649845,767
People per km²17,09417,121
Museums within 10 km959
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.