VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Beijing 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 Beijing for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Havana for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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. Beijing 6, Havana 64: Havana leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Havana 40: Beijing leads by 41 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Havana 77: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Havana 60: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Havana 34: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Havana 38: Beijing leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Havana 34: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Havana 38: Beijing leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Havana 30: Beijing leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Havana 58: Beijing leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Havana 74: Havana leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Havana 22: Beijing leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Havana.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches 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.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
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
BeijingHavana

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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingHavana
Official languagePutonghuaSpanish
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation43 m59 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingHavana
City population21,893,0952,492,618
People per km²1,3343,423
Museums within 10 km8312
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km61
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.