VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Cusco or Hiroshima?

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 Cusco for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • families
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. Cusco 3, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Hiroshima 60: Cusco leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Hiroshima 45: Hiroshima leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Hiroshima 62: Cusco leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 50 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco and Hiroshima are level on 52.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Hiroshima 58: Cusco leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Hiroshima 38: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Cusco
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on families 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.

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CuscoHiroshima

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoHiroshima
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaJapanese
CurrencySol (PEN)Yen (JPY)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+9
Emergency number111 or 911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation3,399 m3 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoHiroshima
City population428,4501,198,021
People per km²-1,324
Museums within 10 km1118
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco or Hiroshima 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.