VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Christchurch 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 Christchurch for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Havana for

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

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. Christchurch 38, Havana 64: Havana leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Havana 40: Christchurch leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Havana 77: Havana leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Havana 60: Havana leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Havana 34: Christchurch leads by 50 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Havana 38: Christchurch leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Havana 34: Christchurch leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Havana 38: Christchurch leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Havana 30: Christchurch leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Havana 58: Havana leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Havana 74: Havana leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Havana 22: Christchurch leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Havana.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Christchurch
46match

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

Havana
47match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ChristchurchHavana

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. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchHavana
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriSpanish
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation20 m59 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchHavana
City population383,2002,492,618
People per km²1,2983,423
Museums within 10 km1112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Christchurch 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.