VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía, Santiago
SantiagoThe terrace on Cerro Santa Lucía

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Santiago by Rjcastillo, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hiroshima or Santiago?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Santiago for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago’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, Santiago 12: Hiroshima leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Santiago 60: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima 60, Santiago 52: Hiroshima leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Santiago 60: Santiago leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Santiago 83: Santiago leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Santiago 70: Hiroshima leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Santiago 57: Hiroshima leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Santiago 68: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima and Santiago are level on 52.
Affordability. Hiroshima and Santiago are level on 58.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Santiago 55: Santiago leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Santiago 37: Hiroshima leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

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 beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Santiago
55match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Santiago in July

14 °Cdaytime high
4 °Cnight-time low
52 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSantiago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Santiago: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago Q. Normal (3.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSantiago
Official languageJapaneseSpanish
CurrencyYen (JPY)Chilean Peso (CLP)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCL220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC-4, UTC-3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119Police 133/134, ambulance 131, fire 132
Elevation3 m575 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsComodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)14 km from centre67 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSantiago
City population1,198,0216,257,516
People per km²1,3247,468
Museums within 10 km1854
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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