VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New York or Tirana?

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 New York for

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

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

Choose Tirana for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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. New York 50, Tirana 46: New York leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Tirana 57: New York leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Tirana 42: New York leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Tirana 58: New York leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Tirana 62: Tirana leads by 7 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Tirana 64: New York leads by 4 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Tirana 40: New York leads by 30 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Tirana 54: New York leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Tirana 32: New York leads by 65 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Tirana 32: New York leads by 67 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Tirana 27: New York leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Tirana.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

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

Tirana
49match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkTirana

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkTirana
Official language-Albanian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Lek (ALL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation25 m110 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkTirana
City population8,804,190389,323
People per km²7,2569,314
Museums within 10 km15711
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Tirana 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). 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.