VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
Santa Claus Village in winter, Rovaniemi
RovaniemiSanta Claus Village in winter

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rovaniemi by Moskenes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fukuoka or Rovaniemi?

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

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • shopping

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

Choose Rovaniemi for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Rovaniemi’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 50, Rovaniemi 10: Fukuoka leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Rovaniemi 25: Fukuoka leads by 57 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Rovaniemi 22: Fukuoka leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Rovaniemi 15: Fukuoka leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Rovaniemi 78: Rovaniemi leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Rovaniemi 8: Fukuoka leads by 76 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Rovaniemi 72: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Rovaniemi 36: Fukuoka leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Rovaniemi 18: Fukuoka leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Rovaniemi 18: Fukuoka leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Rovaniemi 22: Fukuoka leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka and Rovaniemi are level on 60.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Rovaniemi.

Your match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Rovaniemi
32match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Rovaniemi in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
22 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaRovaniemi

Where the figures come from

Rovaniemi 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. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Rovaniemi: 2008-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rovaniemi Rautatieasema / Kuusela (0.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaRovaniemi
Official languageJapaneseFinnish, Swedish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation8 m88 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsRovaniemi Airport (RVN)8 km from centre44 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaRovaniemi
City population1,603,04365,329
People per km²4,7159
Museums within 10 km236
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fukuoka or Rovaniemi 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.