VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Colombo or Taipei?

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

  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Taipei for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Colombo leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 46 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Taipei 72: Taipei leads by 37 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Taipei 66: Colombo leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Taipei 55: Taipei leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 32 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboTaipei
Official languageTamil, SinhalaTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110110 or 112 or 119
Elevation1 m10 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre

By the numbers

MeasureColomboTaipei
City population647,5572,429,429
People per km²17,3618,938
Museums within 10 km1069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or Taipei 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. 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.