VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Colombo 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 Colombo for

  • food and drink
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Havana for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Colombo 55, Havana 64: Havana leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Havana 40: Colombo leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Havana 77: Havana leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Havana 60: Havana leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Havana 34: Havana leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Havana 38: Colombo leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Havana 34: Colombo leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Havana 38: Havana leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Havana 30: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Havana 58: Colombo leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Havana 74: Havana leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Havana 22: Colombo leads by 26 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo 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

Colombo
46match

Wins on food and drink and wellness 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.

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

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
ColomboHavana

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. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboHavana
Official languageTamil, SinhalaSpanish
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation1 m59 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-9 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboHavana
City population647,5572,492,618
People per km²17,3613,423
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. 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 figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.