VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Destin or Fukuoka?

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 Destin for

  • beaches

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

Choose Fukuoka for

  • getting around
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Fukuoka’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. Destin 86, Fukuoka 50: Destin leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Fukuoka 50: Fukuoka leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Destin 36, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Fukuoka 62: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Fukuoka 84: Fukuoka leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Fukuoka 78: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Fukuoka 65: Fukuoka leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Fukuoka 58: Fukuoka leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Fukuoka 45: Fukuoka leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Fukuoka.

Your match

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

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DestinFukuoka

Where the figures come from

Destin 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. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinFukuoka
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation8 m8 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinFukuoka
City population13,9311,603,043
People per km²6364,715
Museums within 10 km123
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Destin or Fukuoka 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.