VacationSelector
Senate Square and the statue of Alexander II, Helsinki
HelsinkiSenate Square and the statue of Alexander II
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Helsinki by Ximonic (Simo Räsänen), CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Helsinki or Venice?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Venice for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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, Venice 56: Venice leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Helsinki 52, Venice 60: Venice leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Helsinki 60, Venice 94: Venice leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Helsinki 50, Venice 27: Helsinki leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Helsinki 58, Venice 45: Helsinki leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Helsinki 62, Venice 86: Venice leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Helsinki 76, Venice 45: Helsinki leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Helsinki 86, Venice 68: Helsinki leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Helsinki 62, Venice 57: Helsinki leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Helsinki 30, Venice 20: Helsinki leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Helsinki 63, Venice 62: Helsinki leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Helsinki 82, Venice 40: Helsinki leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Helsinki and Venice.

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 families with your weighting.

Venice
55match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches 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

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
HelsinkiVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Helsinki: 1991-2020 normals, Helsinki Kaisaniemi / Harju (1.6 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHelsinkiVenice
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 m2 m
Main airportHelsinki Vantaa Airport (HEL)16 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHelsinkiVenice
City population694,392250,369
People per km²3,239602
Museums within 10 km7452
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Venice 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.