VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana or Sao Paulo?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Havana leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Sao Paulo 60: Havana leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Sao Paulo 48: Sao Paulo leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Sao Paulo 47: Sao Paulo leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Sao Paulo 52: Sao Paulo leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Sao Paulo 44: Sao Paulo leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Sao Paulo 25: Sao Paulo leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
Best match
58match

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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaSao Paulo

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). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaSao Paulo
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-3
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation59 m760 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaSao Paulo
City population2,492,61811,451,999
People per km²3,4237,519
Museums within 10 km1290
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

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