VacationSelector

Kathmandu 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.

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

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

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

Your match

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Kathmandu
48
match

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

Macau
46
match

Wins on getting around and families 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.

KathmanduMacau
Beaches & swimming. Macau leads by 20 points.20
Food & drink. Macau leads by 22 points.22
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 20 points.20
Nightlife. Macau leads by 4 points.4
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 65 points.65
Day trips. Kathmandu leads by 4 points.4
Good for families. Macau leads by 28 points.28
Getting around. Macau leads by 35 points.35
Shopping & style. Macau leads by 3 points.3
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 53 points.53
Live music & performing arts. Macau leads by 8 points.8
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 5 points.5
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu 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
JulyKathmanduMacau
Daytime high29 °C32 °C
Night-time low20 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm281 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea29 °C
Daylight14 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
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduMacau
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 10 m
€159-193
MFM · 7 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
2 h 35 m
€180-240
MFM · 7 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
3 h 35 m
€253-326
1 stop
MFM · 7 km
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
5 h 5 m
€315-417
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
3 h 0 m
€181-203
1 stop
MFM · 7 km
SeoulICN, GMP
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
3 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
SingaporeSIN, XSP
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
3 h 40 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
ChongqingCKG, CQW
3 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
1 h 55 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
7 h 40 m
€472-535
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
10 h 5 m
no fares
HKG · 41 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

MeasureKathmanduMacau
Official languageNepaliPortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101999
Elevation1,300 m22 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduMacau
City population845,767682,100
People per km²17,1215,916
Museums within 10 km928
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.