VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires or Seoul?

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 Buenos Aires for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • prices

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

Choose Seoul for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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. Buenos Aires 7, Seoul 18: Seoul leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires 75, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Seoul 84: Buenos Aires leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires 60, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Buenos Aires 55, Seoul 50: Buenos Aires leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Seoul 63: Buenos Aires leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Seoul.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
57match

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

Seoul
Best match
71match

Wins on wellness 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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresSeoul

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresSeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Won (KRW)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC+9
Emergency number117 or 911Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation25 m38 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresSeoul
City population3,121,7079,668,465
People per km²15,35515,973
Museums within 10 km7681
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires or Seoul 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). 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. 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.