VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square, Skopje
SkopjeThe Warrior on a Horse, Macedonia Square

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Skopje by George M. Groutas, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Havana or Skopje?

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 Skopje for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Skopje’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, Skopje 6: Havana leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Skopje 52: Skopje leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Skopje 56: Havana leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Skopje 42: Havana leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Skopje 70: Skopje leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Skopje 56: Skopje leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Skopje 35: Skopje leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Skopje 45: Skopje leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Skopje 40: Skopje leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Skopje 80: Skopje leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Skopje 38: Havana leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Skopje 27: Skopje leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Skopje.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Havana
47match

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

Skopje
46match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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

Skopje in July

32 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaSkopje

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.

Skopje 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.

Skopje's sunshine is measured 68 km from the centre, at Stip.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Skopje: 1991-2020 (sunshine 1961-1990) normals, Skopje-Petrovec (18.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaSkopje
Official languageSpanishAlbanian, Macedonian
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Denar (MKD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m251 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSkopje International Airport (SKP)16 km from centre52 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaSkopje
City population2,492,618422,540
People per km²3,423739
Museums within 10 km1217
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 Skopje 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. 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.