VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Havana or Lima?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Lima for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’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, Lima 42: Havana leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Lima 88: Lima leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Lima 66: Havana leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Lima 62: Lima leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Lima 45: Lima leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Lima 34: Havana leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Lima 42: Lima leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Lima 35: Havana leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Lima 52: Lima leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Lima 70: Lima leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Lima 53: Havana leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Lima 25: Lima leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Lima.

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.

Lima
Best match
51match

Wins on food and drink and shopping 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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaLima

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). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaLima
Official languageSpanishSpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Sol (PEN)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105111 or 911
Elevation59 m154 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaLima
City population2,492,6189,943,800
People per km²3,4233,721
Museums within 10 km1247
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana or Lima 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. 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. 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 figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.