VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
The Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta
YogyakartaThe Tugu monument in the centre of Yogyakarta

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Yogyakarta by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Colombo or Yogyakarta?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Yogyakarta for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Yogyakarta’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, Yogyakarta 22: Colombo leads by 33 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Yogyakarta 62: Colombo leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Yogyakarta 68: Yogyakarta leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Yogyakarta 32: Colombo leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Yogyakarta 72: Yogyakarta leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Yogyakarta 78: Yogyakarta leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Yogyakarta 40: Yogyakarta leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Colombo and Yogyakarta are level on 35.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Yogyakarta 52: Yogyakarta leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Yogyakarta 92: Yogyakarta leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Yogyakarta 58: Yogyakarta leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Yogyakarta 50: Yogyakarta leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Yogyakarta.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Yogyakarta
Best match
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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

Yogyakarta in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
55 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
26 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboYogyakarta

Where the figures come from

Yogyakarta has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Yogyakarta: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureColomboYogyakarta
Official languageTamil, SinhalaIndonesian
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+7
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation1 m113 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsYogyakarta International Airport (YIA)39 km from centre20 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureColomboYogyakarta
City population647,557422,732
People per km²17,36113,007
Museums within 10 km1038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
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 Yogyakarta 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.