VacationSelector
The old town on the Neckar, Heidelberg
HeidelbergThe old town on the Neckar
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Heidelberg by Kuanling Chen, Pexels License; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Heidelberg or Hiroshima?

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 Heidelberg for

  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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. Heidelberg 7, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Heidelberg 40, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Heidelberg 58, Hiroshima 60: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Heidelberg 38, Hiroshima 45: Hiroshima leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Heidelberg 60, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Heidelberg 78, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Heidelberg 62, Hiroshima 60: Heidelberg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Heidelberg 72, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Heidelberg 40, Hiroshima 52: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Heidelberg 42, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Heidelberg 48, Hiroshima 38: Heidelberg leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Heidelberg 44, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Heidelberg and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Heidelberg
49match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Heidelberg in July

26 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HeidelbergHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Heidelberg: 1991-2020 normals, Heidelberg (4.5 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHeidelbergHiroshima
Official languageGermanJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation114 m3 m
Main airportFrankfurt Main Airport (FRA)69 km from centre281 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHeidelbergHiroshima
City population156,0921,198,021
People per km²1,4331,324
Museums within 10 km1718
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Heidelberg or Hiroshima 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.