VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Seoul?

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

Hanok houses in Bukchon, Seoul
Seoul

Photo: 거열 박, Pexels License

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Seoul
✓ Best match
71
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.

KathmanduSeoul
Beaches & swimming. Seoul leads by 14 points.14
Food & drink. Seoul leads by 29 points.29
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 7 points.7
Nightlife. Seoul leads by 48 points.48
Nature & outdoors. Seoul leads by 5 points.5
Day trips. Seoul leads by 21 points.21
Good for families. Seoul leads by 60 points.60
Getting around. Seoul leads by 62 points.62
Shopping & style. Seoul leads by 30 points.30
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 47 points.47
Live music & performing arts. Seoul leads by 35 points.35
Wellness & relaxation. Seoul leads by 30 points.30
0255075100

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

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
JulyKathmanduSeoul
Daytime high29 °C29 °C
Night-time low20 °C22 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm422 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day4 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea21 °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
Seoul
2
5
11
18
24
28
29
30
26
20
12
4
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Seoul
6
4
5
8
12
17
21
24
23
20
15
10
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Seoul
18
28
38
70
104
138
422
390
156
49
50
20
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Seoul
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Seoul
5
5
6
7
7
6
4
5
6
7
5
5

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduSeoul
TokyoHND, NRT
6 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 5 m
€140-229
ICN · 49 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
5 h 0 m
€176-202
ICN · 49 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
6 h 5 m
no fares
ICN · 49 km
Hong KongHKG
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
3 h 5 m
€172-189
ICN · 49 km
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
6 h 10 m
no fares
ICN · 49 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
1 h 40 m
€197-199
1 stop
ICN · 49 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
4 h 25 m
€450-780
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
1 h 45 m
€198-221
ICN · 49 km
QingdaoTAO
4 h 40 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
1 h 20 m
€166-238
ICN · 49 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
8 h 35 m
no fares
ICN · 49 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
10 h 0 m
€493-591
ICN · 49 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 2026-08 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

MeasureKathmanduSeoul
Official languageNepaliKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Won (KRW)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+9
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation1,300 m38 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsIncheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre162 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-18 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduSeoul
City population845,7679,668,465
People per km²17,12115,973
Museums within 10 km980
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C-2 months

Where else could you go?

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