VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

London or Riga?

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 London for

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Riga for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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. London 25, Riga 40: Riga leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Riga 52: London leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Riga 66: London leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Riga 52: London leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Riga 55: London leads by 2 points.
Day trips. London 90, Riga 60: London leads by 30 points.
Good for families. London 82, Riga 50: London leads by 32 points.
Getting around. London 85, Riga 68: London leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Riga 45: London leads by 50 points.
Affordability. London 15, Riga 62: Riga leads by 47 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Riga 65: London leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Riga 50: Riga leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Riga.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LondonRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonRiga
Official languageEnglishLatvian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation4 m6 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLondonRiga
City population8,799,728588,911
People per km²5,598-
Museums within 10 km21612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Riga 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.