VacationSelector
The Atomium, Brussels
BrusselsThe Atomium
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Brussels by Ettanghe, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Brussels or Hiroshima?

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 Brussels for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. Brussels 18, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Brussels 72, Hiroshima 66: Brussels leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Brussels 74, Hiroshima 60: Brussels leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Brussels 60, Hiroshima 45: Brussels leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brussels 45, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Brussels 89, Hiroshima 80: Brussels leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Brussels and Hiroshima are level on 60.
Getting around. Brussels 72, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Brussels 62, Hiroshima 52: Brussels leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Brussels 40, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brussels 68, Hiroshima 38: Brussels leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brussels 33, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brussels and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Brussels
58match

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

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brussels in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BrusselsHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brussels: 1991-2020 normals, Uccle (5.2 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrusselsHiroshima
Official languageFrench, German, DutchJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation70 m3 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)11 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrusselsHiroshima
City population195,5461,198,021
People per km²5,9081,324
Museums within 10 km10618
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km102
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Brussels or Hiroshima 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). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.