VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Havana or Istanbul?

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 Havana for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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. Havana 64, Istanbul 45: Havana leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Istanbul 52: Istanbul leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 56 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Istanbul 60: Istanbul leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Istanbul 62: Havana leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 53 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Istanbul.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaIstanbul

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaIstanbul
Official languageSpanishTurkish
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+3
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m100 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaIstanbul
City population2,492,61815,655,924
People per km²3,4232,930
Museums within 10 km1273
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana or Istanbul 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). 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.