Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.
Galle or Taipei?
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 Taipei for
- getting around
- live music and the arts
- nightlife
What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’s own page.
Scoreboard
Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galle and Taipei.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.
Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.
What matters to you?
When should you go?
Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.
Galle in July
Taipei in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
Where the figures come from
Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.
Taipei 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. Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Galle | Taipei |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Tamil, Sinhala | Taiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect |
| Currency | Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR) | New Taiwan Dollar (TWD) |
| Sockets | GM230 V, 50 Hz | AB110 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+5:30 | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110 | 110 or 112 or 119 |
| Elevation | 0 m | 10 m |
| Main airport | Bandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations | Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre |
By the numbers
| Measure | Galle | Taipei |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 93,118 | 2,429,429 |
| People per km² | - | 8,938 |
| Museums within 10 km | 2 | 69 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 0 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 8 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galle or Taipei somewhere new.