VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Ubud?

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

Rice terraces and palms at Tegallalang, Ubud
Ubud

Photo: Pinterpandai, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Ubud
✓ Best match
54
match

Wins on wellness and beaches 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.

KathmanduUbud
Beaches & swimming. Ubud leads by 36 points.36
Food & drink. Kathmandu and Ubud are level on 55.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 24 points.24
Nightlife. Kathmandu leads by 22 points.22
Nature & outdoors. Ubud leads by 6 points.6
Day trips. Ubud leads by 12 points.12
Good for families. Ubud leads by 24 points.24
Getting around. Kathmandu leads by 15 points.15
Shopping & style. Kathmandu leads by 5 points.5
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 15 points.15
Live music & performing arts. Ubud leads by 27 points.27
Wellness & relaxation. Ubud leads by 51 points.51
0255075100

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

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
JulyKathmanduUbud
Daytime high29 °C29 °C
Night-time low20 °C24 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm27 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day9 hours a day
Sea temperatureNo sea27 °C
Daylight14 hours a day12 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
Ubud
31
31
31
31
31
30
29
29
30
31
32
31
Sea temperature, °C
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Ubud
29
29
29
29
28
28
27
26
27
27
28
29
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Ubud
396
289
222
125
76
38
27
12
30
74
132
295
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Ubud
13
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
12
13
13
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Ubud
7
6
7
8
9
8
9
9
9
9
8
6

Where the figures come from

Ubud's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai.

Ubud's station stands 209 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Ubud: 1991-2020 normals, Denpasar / Ngurah-Rai (29 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduUbud
New DelhiDEL
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
7 h 30 m
€449-537
DPS · 29 km
Kuala LumpurKUL, SZB
4 h 30 m
€444-465
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
3 h 0 m
€127-145
DPS · 29 km
SingaporeSIN, XSP
4 h 50 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
2 h 40 m
€139-147
DPS · 29 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
4 h 10 m
€230-254
DPS · 29 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
9 h 30 m
€461-573
1 stop
DPS · 29 km
DohaDOH
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
9 h 55 m
€774-911
2 stops
DPS · 29 km
Hong KongHKG
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
4 h 45 m
€316-337
DPS · 29 km
GuangzhouCAN
4 h 0 m
€434-523
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
4 h 55 m
€257-289
DPS · 29 km
BengaluruBLR
2 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
6 h 20 m
€509-529
DPS · 29 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
12 h 50 m
€633-726
DPS · 29 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

MeasureKathmanduUbud
Official languageNepaliIndonesian
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Rupiah (IDR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+8
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101112
Elevation1,300 m210 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsDenpasar I Gusti Ngurah Rai International Airport (DPS)29 km from centre63 non-stop destinations

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduUbud
City population845,767-
People per km²17,121-
Museums within 10 km914
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 Ubud 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. 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.