VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Havana or Montevideo?

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

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • families
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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, Montevideo 55: Havana leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Montevideo 57: Montevideo leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Montevideo 54: Havana leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Montevideo 50: Havana leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana and Montevideo are level on 34.
Day trips. Havana 38, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Montevideo 54: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Montevideo 36: Montevideo leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Montevideo 42: Havana leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Montevideo 57: Havana leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Havana
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

Wins on families and food and drink 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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaMontevideo

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). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaMontevideo
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m41 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaMontevideo
City population2,492,6181,302,954
People per km²3,4231,785
Museums within 10 km1236
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana or Montevideo 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.