VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
A paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz, Fethiye
FethiyeA paraglider over the beach at Ölüdeniz

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Fethiye by rheins, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Colombo or Fethiye?

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 Colombo for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Fethiye for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Fethiye’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. Colombo 55, Fethiye 82: Fethiye leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Fethiye 45: Colombo leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Fethiye 35: Colombo leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Fethiye 42: Fethiye leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Fethiye 84: Fethiye leads by 52 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Fethiye 76: Fethiye leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Fethiye 60: Fethiye leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Fethiye 50: Fethiye leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Fethiye 38: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Fethiye 62: Colombo leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Fethiye 15: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Fethiye 55: Fethiye leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Fethiye.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Fethiye
Best match
54match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Fethiye in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboFethiye

Where the figures come from

Fethiye's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Fethiye 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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Fethiye: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (30.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboFethiye
Official languageTamil, SinhalaTurkish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation1 m0 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)30 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboFethiye
City population647,557182,200
People per km²17,361-
Museums within 10 km101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or Fethiye 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.