VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Helsinki or New York?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose New York for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, New York 92: New York leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, New York 89: New York leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, New York 97: New York leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, New York 55: Helsinki leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, New York 68: New York leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, New York 70: Helsinki leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, New York 82: Helsinki leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, New York 97: New York leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, New York 12: Helsinki leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, New York 99: New York leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, New York 42: Helsinki leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Helsinki
59match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiNew York
Official languageFinnish, Swedish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation17 m25 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiNew York
City population694,3928,804,190
People per km²3,2397,256
Museums within 10 km74157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

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