VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Helsinki 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 Helsinki for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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. Helsinki 28, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki and Hiroshima are level on 60.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Hiroshima 45: Helsinki leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Hiroshima 60: Helsinki leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Hiroshima 74: Helsinki leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Hiroshima 52: Helsinki leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Hiroshima 38: Helsinki leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Hiroshima 50: Helsinki leads by 32 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Helsinki
Best match
59match

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

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on prices 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.

Helsinki in July

22 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiHiroshima
Official languageFinnish, SwedishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation17 m3 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiHiroshima
City population694,3921,198,021
People per km²3,2391,324
Museums within 10 km7418
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Helsinki 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.