VacationSelector

Cairo or Kathmandu?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
Cairo

Photo: Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cairo
50
match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

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

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

CairoKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Cairo leads by 6 points.6
Food & drink. Cairo leads by 5 points.5
Culture & sights. Cairo leads by 14 points.14
Nightlife. Cairo leads by 12 points.12
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 40 points.40
Day trips. Cairo leads by 10 points.10
Good for families. Cairo leads by 12 points.12
Getting around. Cairo leads by 10 points.10
Shopping & style. Cairo leads by 3 points.3
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 2 points.2
Live music & performing arts. Cairo leads by 22 points.22
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 30 points.30
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cairo and Kathmandu.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyCairoKathmandu
Daytime high36 °C29 °C
Night-time low23 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm384 mm
Sunshine12 hours a day4 hours a day
Daylight14 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cairo
19
21
24
29
33
35
36
36
34
30
26
21
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Rainfall, mm
Cairo
6
5
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Cairo
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Cairo
7
7
9
9
11
11
12
11
10
10
9
7
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCairoKathmandu
Kuwait CityKWI
2 h 35 m
€137-145
CAI · 17 km
4 h 55 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
RiyadhRUH
2 h 35 m
€154-163
CAI · 17 km
5 h 10 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
New DelhiDEL
5 h 50 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
DammamDMM
2 h 50 m
€195-226
CAI · 17 km
4 h 50 m
€564-827
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
3 h 30 m
€262-290
CAI · 17 km
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 10 m
€154-167
CAI · 17 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
DohaDOH
3 h 5 m
no fares
CAI · 17 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
Abu DhabiAUH
3 h 30 m
€191-269
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
SharjahSHJ
3 h 30 m
€309-348
CAI · 17 km
4 h 10 m
€469-551
KTM · 4 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 30 m
€644-746
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureCairoKathmandu
Official languageArabicNepali
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+5:45
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation23 m1,300 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCairoKathmandu
City population9,801,536845,767
People per km²18,56417,121
Museums within 10 km489
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo or Kathmandu somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.