Helsinki or Tokyo?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Helsinki leads by 39 points.39
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 21 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 157 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 5 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 5 km |
Places to eat. Tokyo leads by 19 points.19
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 90 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,005 | 6,936 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 25 |
Museums & heritage. Tokyo leads by 17 points.17
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 66 |
| Museums within 10 km | 57 | 302 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 52 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 40 | 17 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Tokyo leads by 39 points.39
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 807 | 6,895 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 607 | 3,033 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 44 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 40 | 58 |
Nature & day trips. Tokyo leads by 16 points.16
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 58 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 3 | — |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 53 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 185 hectares | 85 hectares |
Good for families. Tokyo leads by 13 points.13
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 71 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 20 | 40 |
| Park area within 2 km | 185 hectares | 85 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 9 |
Sights concentration. Helsinki leads by 13 points.13
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 60 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 257 | 121 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Tokyo leads by 14 points.14
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 70 |
| Price level global | 81.6 | 62.4 |
| Daily budget | €184 | — |
Year-round weather. Tokyo leads by 16 points.16
| Helsinki | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | -1.5 °C to 21.9 °C | 10 °C to 31.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 32 mm to 84 mm | 57 mm to 237 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Helsinki | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| SeoulICN, GMP | 8 h 55 m no fares HEL · 16 km | 2 h 10 m €124-187 NRT · 56 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 1 h 10 m €62-63 HEL · 16 km | 10 h 15 m no fares HND · 18 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 50 m €112-224 HEL · 16 km | 11 h 55 m €820-907 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 9 h 20 m no fares HEL · 16 km | 2 h 45 m €296-314 HND · 18 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 10 h 0 m €603-634 HEL · 16 km | 6 h 10 m €318-337 NRT · 56 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 9 h 50 m no fares HEL · 16 km | 4 h 10 m €255-268 NRT · 56 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 30 m €203-241 1 stop HEL · 16 km | 11 h 40 m €786-939 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 55 m €187-219 1 stop HEL · 16 km | 12 h 5 m €835-923 HND · 18 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 25 m no fares HEL · 16 km | 13 h 30 m €813-1004 HND · 18 km |
| DohaDOH | 5 h 50 m no fares HEL · 16 km | 10 h 25 m €931-1048 1 stop HND · 18 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Helsinki | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Finnish, Swedish | Japanese |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Yen (JPY) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 110, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 17 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Helsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre120 non-stop destinations | Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre97 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 15 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Helsinki | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 694,392 | 14,264,798 |
| People per km² | 3,239 | 6,501 |
| Museums within 10 km | 74 | 191 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 78 | 125 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Helsinki or Tokyo somewhere new.