VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
Taipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain, Taipei
TaipeiTaipei 101 and the skyline from Elephant Mountain

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Taipei by Another Believer, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

London or Taipei?

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

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

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

Choose Taipei for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Taipei’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, Taipei 40: Taipei leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Taipei 88: Taipei leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Taipei 68: London leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Taipei 58: London leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Taipei 78: Taipei leads by 21 points.
Day trips. London 90, Taipei 76: London leads by 14 points.
Good for families. London 82, Taipei 72: London leads by 10 points.
Getting around. London 85, Taipei 86: Taipei leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Taipei 70: London leads by 25 points.
Affordability. London 15, Taipei 66: Taipei leads by 51 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Taipei 55: London leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Taipei 80: Taipei leads by 40 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

London
71match

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

Taipei
70match

Wins on prices and wellness 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

Taipei in July

35 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
288 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
LondonTaipei

Where the figures come from

Taipei 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. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Taipei: 1992-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sungshan / Taipei (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonTaipei
Official languageEnglishTaiwanese Sign Language, Amis, Taiwanese Hokkien, Rukai, Bunun, Kanakanavu, Standard Taiwanese Mandarin, Paiwan, Yami, Atayal, Saaroa, Kavalan, Tsou, Seediq, Puyuma, Saisiyat, Sakizaya, Taiwanese Hakka, Truku, Matsu dialect, Kinmen dialect, Wuqiu dialect
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)New Taiwan Dollar (TWD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999110 or 112 or 119
Elevation4 m10 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsTaiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)33 km from centre
Public holidays this year8 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLondonTaipei
City population8,799,7282,429,429
People per km²5,5988,938
Museums within 10 km21669
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

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