VacationSelector

Hanoi or Kathmandu?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
Hanoi

Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Hanoi
✓ Best match
52
match

Wins on food and drink and families with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

HanoiKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Hanoi leads by 2 points.2
Food & drink. Hanoi leads by 30 points.30
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 10 points.10
Nightlife. Hanoi leads by 14 points.14
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 18 points.18
Day trips. Hanoi leads by 2 points.2
Good for families. Hanoi leads by 15 points.15
Getting around. Hanoi leads by 11 points.11
Shopping & style. Kathmandu leads by 5 points.5
Affordability. Hanoi leads by 1 points.1
Live music & performing arts. Hanoi leads by 12 points.12
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi leads by 1 points.1
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Kathmandu.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyHanoiKathmandu
Daytime high34 °C29 °C
Night-time low27 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month311 mm384 mm
Sunshine6 hours a day4 hours a day
Daylight13 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Hanoi
19
22
24
28
32
35
34
33
32
30
27
23
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Rainfall, mm
Hanoi
23
23
52
72
204
272
311
310
179
109
73
30
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Hanoi
11
11
12
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
11
11
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Hanoi
2
2
2
2
6
6
6
5
6
5
4
4
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromHanoiKathmandu
New DelhiDEL
4 h 10 m
€357-423
1 stop
HAN · 22 km
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
3 h 10 m
€192-238
HAN · 22 km
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
1 h 50 m
€134-146
HAN · 22 km
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
Hong KongHKG
1 h 40 m
€117-131
HAN · 22 km
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
GuangzhouCAN
1 h 35 m
€164
HAN · 22 km
4 h 0 m
€434-523
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
3 h 25 m
€198-215
HAN · 22 km
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
SeoulICN, GMP
3 h 50 m
€224-243
HAN · 22 km
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
2 h 55 m
€194-215
HAN · 22 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Abu DhabiAUH
6 h 50 m
€678-696
2 stops
HAN · 22 km
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
9 h 25 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-11 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureHanoiKathmandu
Official languageVietnameseNepali
CurrencyDong (VND)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:45
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation10 m1,300 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiKathmandu
City population8,717,600845,767
People per km²2,59517,121
Museums within 10 km149
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hanoi or Kathmandu somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.