VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Havana or Sydney?

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

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

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

Choose Sydney for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Sydney 60: Havana leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Havana and Sydney are level on 60.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Sydney 22: Havana leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Sydney 73: Havana leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 33 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Sydney.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families 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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaSydney
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105000
Elevation59 m6 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaSydney
City population2,492,6185,450,496
People per km²3,423449
Museums within 10 km1238
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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