VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Helsinki or Taipei?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • wellness

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

Choose Taipei for

  • food and drink
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Taipei 68: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Taipei 58: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Taipei 76: Taipei leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Taipei 72: Helsinki leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Helsinki and Taipei are level on 86.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Taipei 70: Taipei leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Taipei 55: Helsinki leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Taipei 80: Helsinki leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Helsinki
59match

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

Taipei
Best match
70match

Wins on food and drink 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiTaipei
Official languageFinnish, SwedishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112110 or 112 or 119
Elevation17 m10 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year15 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiTaipei
City population694,3922,429,429
People per km²3,2398,938
Museums within 10 km7469
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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