VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Boston 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 Boston for

  • families
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Havana for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • 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. Boston 35, Havana 64: Havana leads by 29 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Havana 40: Boston leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Havana 77: Havana leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Havana 60: Havana leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Havana 34: Boston leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Havana 38: Boston leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Havana 34: Boston leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Havana 38: Boston leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Havana 30: Boston leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Havana 58: Havana leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Havana 74: Havana leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Havana 22: Boston leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on families and day trips with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonHavana

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonHavana
Official language-Spanish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation43 m59 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonHavana
City population675,6472,492,618
People per km²2,9103,423
Museums within 10 km5112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

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