VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hiroshima or Riga?

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 Hiroshima for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • families

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

Choose Riga for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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. Hiroshima 30, Riga 40: Riga leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Riga 52: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Riga 66: Riga leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Riga 52: Riga leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Riga 55: Hiroshima leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Riga 60: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Riga 50: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Riga 68: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Riga 45: Hiroshima leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Riga 62: Riga leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Riga 65: Riga leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima and Riga are level on 50.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaRiga
Official languageJapaneseLatvian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation3 m6 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days-

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaRiga
City population1,198,021588,911
People per km²1,324-
Museums within 10 km1812
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima or Riga somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.