VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana or Thessaloniki?

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

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

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • food and drink
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Havana leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Thessaloniki 73: Havana leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Thessaloniki 52: Havana leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on food and drink and day trips 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaThessaloniki
Official languageSpanishGreek
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m6 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaThessaloniki
City population2,492,618309,617
People per km²3,42316,042
Museums within 10 km1232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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