VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Madrid or Tokyo?

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 Madrid for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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. Madrid 5, Tokyo 40: Tokyo leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Tokyo 84: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Tokyo 68: Tokyo leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Tokyo 85: Madrid leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Tokyo 48: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 42 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Madrid
66match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on wellness 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridTokyo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridTokyo
Official languageSpanishJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation663 m6 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridTokyo
City population3,506,73014,264,798
People per km²5,8016,501
Museums within 10 km88192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Tokyo 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.

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.