VacationSelector

Istanbul or Macau?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
Istanbul

Photo: AXP Photography, Pexels License

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

Your match

Istanbul
✓ Best match
67
match

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

Macau
46
match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

IstanbulMacau
Beaches & swimming. Istanbul leads by 21 points.21
Food & drink. Istanbul leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Istanbul leads by 28 points.28
Nightlife. Istanbul leads by 37 points.37
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul leads by 47 points.47
Day trips. Istanbul leads by 3 points.3
Good for families. Istanbul leads by 7 points.7
Getting around. Istanbul leads by 2 points.2
Shopping & style. Istanbul leads by 28 points.28
Affordability. Istanbul leads by 16 points.16
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul leads by 26 points.26
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul leads by 35 points.35
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Macau.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyIstanbulMacau
Daytime high30 °C32 °C
Night-time low21 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month23 mm281 mm
Sunshine11 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperature23 °C29 °C
Daylight15 hours a day13 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Istanbul
9
10
12
17
22
27
30
30
26
21
16
11
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
Sea temperature, °C
Istanbul
9
8
9
11
16
21
23
24
22
19
15
12
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Rainfall, mm
Istanbul
74
74
66
47
29
29
23
29
43
85
79
101
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Daylight, hours per day
Istanbul
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Istanbul
3
3
5
6
9
10
11
10
7
5
4
2
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromIstanbulMacau
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
10 h 5 m
no fares
IST · 36 km
2 h 10 m
€159-193
MFM · 7 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
9 h 30 m
€507-517
1 stop
IST · 36 km
2 h 35 m
€180-240
MFM · 7 km
MoscowVKO, SVO, DME, ZIA
2 h 40 m
€215-235
IST · 36 km
9 h 5 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
SeoulICN, GMP
10 h 0 m
€533-647
IST · 36 km
3 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
TehranIKA, THR
3 h 5 m
€261-292
IST · 36 km
7 h 55 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
3 h 35 m
€110-186
IST · 36 km
12 h 0 m
€570-666
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 0 m
no fares
IST · 36 km
3 h 0 m
€181-203
1 stop
MFM · 7 km
ManilaMNL
11 h 25 m
no fares
IST · 36 km
2 h 0 m
€125-142
MFM · 7 km
Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY
13 h 35 m
no fares
IST · 36 km
14 h 25 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC
14 h 5 m
no fares
IST · 36 km
17 h 15 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulMacau
Official languageTurkishPortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation100 m22 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre342 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulMacau
City population15,655,924682,100
People per km²2,9305,916
Museums within 10 km7228
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months8 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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). 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.