VacationSelector
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Busan or New York?

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

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: Busan leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Busan 72, New York 92: New York leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Busan 52, New York 89: New York leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Busan 60, New York 97: New York leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Busan 74, New York 55: Busan leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Busan 74, New York 68: Busan leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Busan and New York are level on 70.
Getting around. Busan 68, New York 82: New York leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Busan 60, New York 97: New York leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Busan 56, New York 12: Busan leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Busan 42, New York 99: New York leads by 57 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Busan 78, New York 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 New York.

Your match

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

Busan
65match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BusanNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBusanNew York
Official languageKorean, Korean Sign Language-
CurrencyWon (KRW)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 119, fire 119911
Elevation30 m25 m
Main airportGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year18 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBusanNew York
City population3,453,1988,804,190
People per km²4,4867,256
Museums within 10 km7157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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