VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana or Tirana?

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
  • culture and sights
  • beaches

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

Choose Tirana for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: Havana leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Tirana 57: Tirana leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Tirana 42: Havana leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Tirana 58: Havana leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Tirana 62: Tirana leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Tirana 40: Tirana leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Tirana 54: Tirana leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Tirana 32: Tirana leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Tirana 32: Havana leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Tirana 27: Tirana leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Tirana.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Havana
47match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tirana
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaTirana

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). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaTirana
Official languageSpanishAlbanian
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Lek (ALL)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF220 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 m110 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaTirana
City population2,492,618389,323
People per km²3,4239,314
Museums within 10 km1211
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Tirana 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.