VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
SeoulHanok houses in Bukchon

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Seoul by 거열 박, Pexels License.

Havana or Seoul?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Seoul for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Seoul’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, Seoul 18: Havana leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Seoul 75: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Seoul 84: Seoul leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Seoul 77: Seoul leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Seoul 80: Seoul leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Seoul 87: Seoul leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Seoul 85: Seoul leads by 55 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Seoul 50: Havana leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Seoul 63: Havana leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Seoul 75: Seoul leads by 53 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Seoul.

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.

Seoul
Best match
71match

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

Seoul in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
422 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaSeoul

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). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaSeoul
Official languageSpanishKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Won (KRW)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation59 m38 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaSeoul
City population2,492,6189,668,465
People per km²3,42315,973
Museums within 10 km1281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Seoul 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.