Boston or Seoul?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Boston leads by 45 points.45
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 15 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 68 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 28 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 28 km |
Places to eat. Seoul leads by 12 points.12
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 85 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,452 | 3,559 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Seoul leads by 40 points.40
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 83 |
| Museums within 10 km | 79 | 203 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 90 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 34 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 5 |
Nightlife. Seoul leads by 22 points.22
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 80 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 886 | 3,291 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 513 | 1,630 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 58 | 50 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 29 |
Nature & day trips. Boston leads by 21 points.21
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 32 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 77 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 126 hectares |
Good for families. Seoul leads by 26 points.26
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 79 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 62 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 126 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 8 |
Sights concentration. Seoul leads by 1 points.1
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 111 | 118 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Seoul leads by 29 points.29
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 72 |
| Price level global | 100 | 59.4 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Seoul leads by 5 points.5
| Boston | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.9 °C to 28 °C | 2 °C to 30 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 79 mm to 107 mm | 18 mm to 422 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 4 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Boston | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 0 m €192-203 BOS · 4 km | 13 h 45 m €770-823 ICN · 49 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 25 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 2 h 5 m €140-229 ICN · 49 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 50 m €536-548 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 11 h 5 m €603-659 1 stop ICN · 49 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 20 m €176-196 BOS · 4 km | 13 h 5 m no fares ICN · 49 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 15 h 45 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 3 h 5 m €172-189 ICN · 49 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 35 m €289-344 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 12 h 0 m €637-697 ICN · 49 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 10 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 11 h 10 m €687-728 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 5 h 45 m €341-440 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 11 h 20 m €560-734 ICN · 49 km |
| Abu DhabiAUH | 13 h 15 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 8 h 45 m €591-679 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 5 h 0 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 14 h 55 m €1,052-1072 2 stops ICN · 49 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
| Measure | Boston | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Korean, Korean Sign Language |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Won (KRW) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CF220 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 43 m | 38 m |
| Main airport | Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinations | Incheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre161 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 18 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Boston | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 675,647 | 9,668,465 |
| People per km² | 2,910 | 15,973 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 80 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 74 | 156 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston or Seoul somewhere new.