VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Manila?

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 Manila Central Post Office on the Pasig, Manila
Manila

Photo: Kenneth Surillo, Pexels License

Your match

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Kathmandu
48
match

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

Manila
48
match

Wins on nightlife 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.

KathmanduManila
Beaches & swimming. Manila leads by 8 points.8
Food & drink. Manila leads by 9 points.9
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 28 points.28
Nightlife. Manila leads by 28 points.28
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 30 points.30
Day trips. Kathmandu leads by 14 points.14
Good for families. Manila leads by 22 points.22
Getting around. Manila leads by 1 points.1
Shopping & style. Manila leads by 5 points.5
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 20 points.20
Live music & performing arts. Manila leads by 22 points.22
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 Manila.

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
JulyKathmanduManila
Daytime high29 °C32 °C
Night-time low20 °C25 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm487 mm
Sunshine4 hours a dayNo figure
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
Manila
31
31
33
35
34
33
32
31
31
32
31
31
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Manila
27
27
28
29
30
30
29
29
29
29
28
28
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Manila
26
24
40
36
220
314
487
564
509
297
152
109
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Manila
11
12
12
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
12
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Manila
No sunshine record

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Manila: 1991-2020 normals, Science Garden (6 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduManila
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
3 h 35 m
€159-184
1 stop
MNL · 11 km
TokyoHND, NRT
6 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
4 h 10 m
€304-317
MNL · 11 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
3 h 15 m
€205-213
MNL · 11 km
Hong KongHKG
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 0 m
€128-135
MNL · 11 km
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
6 h 15 m
no fares
MNL · 11 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
8 h 45 m
€428-448
MNL · 11 km
RiyadhRUH
5 h 10 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
9 h 50 m
€435-460
1 stop
MNL · 11 km
DohaDOH
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
9 h 15 m
no fares
MNL · 11 km
SeoulICN, GMP
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
3 h 45 m
€191-223
MNL · 11 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
11 h 25 m
no fares
MNL · 11 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

MeasureKathmanduManila
Official languageNepaliEnglish, Filipino, Taglish
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Philippine Peso (PHP)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m9 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsNinoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)11 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduManila
City population845,7671,902,590
People per km²17,12176,104
Museums within 10 km927
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu or Manila 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.