New York or Seoul?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on value for money and museums & heritage with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 49 points.49
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 15 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 2 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 28 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 28 km |
Places to eat. New York leads by 10 points.10
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 85 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 6,032 | 3,559 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Seoul leads by 23 points.23
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 83 |
| Museums within 10 km | 119 | 203 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 31 | 90 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 26 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
Nightlife. New York leads by 9 points.9
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 80 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 4,159 | 3,291 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,015 | 1,630 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 48 | 50 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 192 | 29 |
Nature & day trips. New York leads by 7 points.7
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 32 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 69 | 95 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 126 hectares |
Good for families. Seoul leads by 7 points.7
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 79 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 62 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 126 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 8 |
Sights concentration. New York leads by 15 points.15
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 268 | 118 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Seoul leads by 29 points.29
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 72 |
| Price level global | 100 | 59.4 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Seoul leads by 3 points.3
| New York | Seoul | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C | 2 °C to 30 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 74 mm to 112 mm | 18 mm to 422 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 4 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Seoul: 1991-2020 normals, Seoul (2.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | New York | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km | 2 h 5 m €140-229 ICN · 49 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 20 m €314-354 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 12 h 0 m €637-697 ICN · 49 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 30 m €445-517 JFK · 21 km | 11 h 10 m €687-728 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 15 h 55 m no fares JFK · 21 km | 3 h 5 m €172-189 ICN · 49 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 5 m €236-237 LGA · 13 km | 13 h 5 m no fares ICN · 49 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 7 h 10 m €459-498 JFK · 21 km | 11 h 5 m €603-659 1 stop ICN · 49 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 7 h 55 m €439-457 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 10 h 45 m €646-685 ICN · 49 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 5 m €203-258 LGA · 13 km | 13 h 50 m no fares ICN · 49 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 4 h 40 m €374-446 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 14 h 55 m €1,052-1072 2 stops ICN · 49 km |
| Abu DhabiAUH | 13 h 40 m no fares JFK · 21 km | 8 h 45 m €591-679 2 stops ICN · 49 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 2026-08 to 2026-10, 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
| Measure | New York | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Korean, Korean Sign Language |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Won (KRW) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CF220 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 25 m | 38 m |
| Main airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 non-stop destinations | Incheon International Airport (ICN)49 km from centre161 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 18 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | New York | Seoul |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,804,190 | 9,668,465 |
| People per km² | 7,256 | 15,973 |
| Museums within 10 km | 157 | 80 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 132 | 156 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 2 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Seoul somewhere new.