VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Rome?

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 Colosseum, Rome
Rome

Photo: Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

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

Rome
✓ Best match
64
match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts 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.

KathmanduRome
Beaches & swimming. Rome leads by 46 points.46
Food & drink. Rome leads by 27 points.27
Culture & sights. Rome leads by 17 points.17
Nightlife. Rome leads by 22 points.22
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 12 points.12
Day trips. Rome leads by 36 points.36
Good for families. Rome leads by 30 points.30
Getting around. Rome leads by 35 points.35
Shopping & style. Rome leads by 17 points.17
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 59 points.59
Live music & performing arts. Rome leads by 40 points.40
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 Rome.

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
JulyKathmanduRome
Daytime high29 °C31 °C
Night-time low20 °C19 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm21 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day11 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea25 °C
Daylight14 hours a day15 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
Rome
12
13
16
18
24
28
31
31
27
22
17
13
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Rome
15
14
14
15
18
22
25
25
24
21
19
16
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Rome
67
69
57
75
62
33
21
38
70
97
114
103
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Rome
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Rome
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
11
8
6
4
4

Where the figures come from

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduRome
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
7 h 40 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
5 h 45 m
€270-340
FCO · 23 km
DohaDOH
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
5 h 25 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
2 h 15 m
€136-291
FCO · 23 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
11 h 5 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
Kuwait CityKWI
4 h 55 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
4 h 45 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
Abu DhabiAUH
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
5 h 45 m
€280-355
2 stops
FCO · 23 km
Hong KongHKG
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
11 h 35 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
GuangzhouCAN
4 h 0 m
€434-523
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
11 h 25 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
RiyadhRUH
5 h 10 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
5 h 0 m
no fares
FCO · 23 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

MeasureKathmanduRome
Official languageNepaliItalian
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101112
Elevation1,300 m21 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduRome
City population845,7672,748,109
People per km²17,1212,135
Museums within 10 km9177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km17
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu or Rome 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.