VacationSelector
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Dubai 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 Dubai for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • families

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • 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. Dubai 80, Hiroshima 30: Dubai leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Dubai 76, Hiroshima 66: Dubai leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Dubai 40, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Dubai 62, Hiroshima 45: Dubai leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dubai 25, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Dubai 45, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Dubai 82, Hiroshima 60: Dubai leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Dubai 42, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Dubai 82, Hiroshima 52: Dubai leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Dubai 32, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dubai 40, Hiroshima 38: Dubai leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dubai 46, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dubai and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Dubai
54match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

Hiroshima
56match

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.

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 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°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
DubaiHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDubaiHiroshima
Official languageArabicJapanese
CurrencyUAE Dirham (AED)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCG220 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation0 m3 m
Main airportDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureDubaiHiroshima
City population3,944,7511,198,021
People per km²-1,324
Museums within 10 km1418
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dubai 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.