VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fukuoka or Melbourne?

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 Fukuoka for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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. Fukuoka and Melbourne are level on 50.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Melbourne 75: Fukuoka leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Melbourne 57: Melbourne leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Melbourne 62: Fukuoka leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Melbourne 73: Fukuoka leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Melbourne 76: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Melbourne 31: Fukuoka leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Melbourne 54: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Fukuoka
65match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Melbourne
64match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaMelbourne
Official languageJapaneseEnglish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119000
Elevation8 m31 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaMelbourne
City population1,603,0435,350,705
People per km²4,715535
Museums within 10 km2343
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fukuoka or Melbourne 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.