VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Hong Kong or London?

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 Hong Kong for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose London for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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. Hong Kong 50, London 25: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, London 84: Hong Kong leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, London 94: London leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, London 88: London leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, London 57: Hong Kong leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, London 90: London leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, London 82: London leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, London 85: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, London 95: London leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, London 15: Hong Kong leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, London 98: London leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, London 40: Hong Kong leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and London.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
67match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongLondon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongLondon
Official languageStandard ChineseEnglish
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number999112 or 999
Elevation7 m4 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongLondon
City population7,413,0708,799,728
People per km²-5,598
Museums within 10 km39216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hong Kong or London 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). 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.