VacationSelector

Jakarta or Kathmandu?

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

The Istiqlal Mosque, Jakarta
Jakarta

Photo: Antonyus Bunjamin, Pexels License

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Jakarta
✓ Best match
51
match

Wins on nightlife and families with your weighting.

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

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.

JakartaKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Jakarta leads by 24 points.24
Food & drink. Jakarta leads by 23 points.23
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 34 points.34
Nightlife. Jakarta leads by 30 points.30
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 40 points.40
Day trips. Kathmandu leads by 11 points.11
Good for families. Jakarta leads by 30 points.30
Getting around. Jakarta leads by 11 points.11
Shopping & style. Jakarta leads by 9 points.9
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 17 points.17
Live music & performing arts. Jakarta leads by 14 points.14
Wellness & relaxation. Jakarta leads by 1 points.1
0255075100

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

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
JulyJakartaKathmandu
Daytime high32 °C29 °C
Night-time low25 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month85 mm384 mm
Sunshine5 hours a day4 hours a day
Sea temperature29 °CNo sea
Daylight12 hours a day14 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
Jakarta
31
31
32
33
33
32
32
33
33
33
33
32
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Sea temperature, °C
Jakarta
29
29
29
30
30
30
29
29
29
29
30
29
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Jakarta
355
360
197
160
102
70
85
39
56
99
128
210
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Jakarta
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
13
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Jakarta
3
3
4
5
5
4
5
6
6
6
4
3
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Jakarta: 1991-2020 normals, Jakarta / Observatory (1.1 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromJakartaKathmandu
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
2 h 0 m
€120-134
CGK · 20 km
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 20 m
€217-232
1 stop
CGK · 20 km
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
GuangzhouCAN
4 h 35 m
€208-270
1 stop
CGK · 20 km
4 h 0 m
€434-523
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
SingaporeSIN, XSP
1 h 40 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
8 h 20 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
DohaDOH
8 h 45 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
TokyoHND, NRT
7 h 30 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
6 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
SeoulICN, GMP
6 h 50 m
€227-241
CGK · 20 km
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
5 h 55 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
11 h 50 m
no fares
CGK · 20 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 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 2026-09 to 2026-10, 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

MeasureJakartaKathmandu
Official languageIndonesianNepali
CurrencyRupiah (IDR)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsCF50 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+5:45
Emergency number112Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation91 m1,300 m
Main airportSoekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK)20 km from centre89 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureJakartaKathmandu
City population11,135,191845,767
People per km²16,82117,121
Museums within 10 km449
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Jakarta or Kathmandu 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). 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.