VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, Naples
NaplesCastel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Naples by pietro scerrato, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Helsinki or Naples?

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
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Naples for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Naples’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, Naples 50: Naples leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Naples 83: Naples leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Naples 87: Naples leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Naples 60: Naples leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Naples 77: Naples leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Naples 96: Naples leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Naples 45: Helsinki leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Naples 54: Helsinki leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Naples 60: Helsinki leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Naples 63: Naples leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Naples 66: Naples leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Naples 44: Helsinki leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Naples.

Your match

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

Helsinki
59match

Wins on wellness and getting around with your weighting.

Naples
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and prices 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

Naples in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiNaples

Where the figures come from

Naples 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.

Naples's sunshine is measured 28 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Naples: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Napoli / Capodichino (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiNaples
Official languageFinnish, SwedishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation17 m17 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiNaples
City population694,392913,462
People per km²3,2397,676
Museums within 10 km7465
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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