VacationSelector
The Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala LumpurThe Petronas Twin Towers from KLCC Park
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor

Photos: Kuala Lumpur by Brownc, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Kuala Lumpur or Lima?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Kuala Lumpur for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Kuala Lumpur’s own page.

Choose Lima for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Lima’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Kuala Lumpur 12, Lima 42: Lima leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Kuala Lumpur 82, Lima 88: Lima leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Kuala Lumpur 57, Lima 66: Lima leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Kuala Lumpur 54, Lima 62: Lima leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kuala Lumpur 47, Lima 45: Kuala Lumpur leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Kuala Lumpur 52, Lima 34: Kuala Lumpur leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Kuala Lumpur 64, Lima 42: Kuala Lumpur leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Kuala Lumpur 57, Lima 35: Kuala Lumpur leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Kuala Lumpur 66, Lima 52: Kuala Lumpur leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Kuala Lumpur 75, Lima 70: Kuala Lumpur leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kuala Lumpur 42, Lima 53: Lima leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kuala Lumpur 44, Lima 25: Kuala Lumpur leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kuala Lumpur and Lima.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Kuala Lumpur
Best match
54match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Lima
51match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Kuala Lumpur in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
139 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
30 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Kuala LumpurLima

Where the figures come from

Kuala Lumpur's temperatures are measured 46 km from the centre, at Sepang/KL International Airport.

Kuala Lumpur has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kuala Lumpur: 1991-2020 normals, Sepang/KL International Airport (46.1 km from centre). Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKuala LumpurLima
Official languageMalaySpanish, Aymara, Quechua
CurrencyMalaysian Ringgit (MYR)Sol (PEN)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzABC220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5
Emergency number999111 or 911
Elevation50 m154 m
Main airportKuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)45 km from centre146 non-stop destinationsJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-16 days

By the numbers

MeasureKuala LumpurLima
City population9,000,2809,943,800
People per km²36,9323,721
Museums within 10 km2547
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months2 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kuala Lumpur or Lima somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.