VacationSelector
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Hong Kong or Seattle?

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

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Seattle for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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, Seattle 30: Hong Kong leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Hong Kong 90, Seattle 66: Hong Kong leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Hong Kong 60, Seattle 50: Hong Kong leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Hong Kong 68, Seattle 55: Hong Kong leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hong Kong 80, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Hong Kong 68, Seattle 55: Hong Kong leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Hong Kong 75, Seattle 64: Hong Kong leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Hong Kong 97, Seattle 60: Hong Kong leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Hong Kong 88, Seattle 52: Hong Kong leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Hong Kong 27, Seattle 22: Hong Kong leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hong Kong 55, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hong Kong 42, Seattle 40: Hong Kong leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hong Kong and Seattle.

Your match

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

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Seattle
54match

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

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
Hong KongSeattle

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHong KongSeattle
Official languageStandard Chinese-
CurrencyHong Kong Dollar (HKD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation7 m40 m
Main airportHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHong KongSeattle
City population7,413,070737,015
People per km²-1,996
Museums within 10 km3927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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