VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Busan or Florence?

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 Busan for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

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

Choose Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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. Busan 68, Florence 14: Busan leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Florence 74: Florence leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Florence 94: Florence leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, Florence 42: Busan leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Florence 58: Busan leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Florence 98: Florence leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Florence 45: Busan leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Florence 78: Florence leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Florence 72: Florence leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Florence 35: Busan leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Florence 58: Florence leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Florence 42: Busan leads by 36 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Florence.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Florence
59match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanFlorence

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanFlorence
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageItalian
CurrencyWon (KRW)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119112
Elevation30 m50 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanFlorence
City population3,453,198360,930
People per km²4,4863,528
Museums within 10 km7141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Busan or Florence 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.