VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Busan 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 Busan for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Havana for

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

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. Busan 68, Havana 64: Busan leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, Havana 40: Busan leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, Havana 77: Havana leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Busan and Havana are level on 60.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, Havana 34: Busan leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, Havana 38: Busan leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Busan 70, Havana 34: Busan leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Busan 68, Havana 38: Busan leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, Havana 30: Busan leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, Havana 58: Havana leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, Havana 74: Havana leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, Havana 22: Busan leads by 56 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Busan and Havana.

Your match

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

Busan
Best match
65match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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

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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanHavana

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. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanHavana
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign LanguageSpanish
CurrencyWon (KRW)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation30 m59 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanHavana
City population3,453,1982,492,618
People per km²4,4863,423
Museums within 10 km712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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