Paris or Tokyo?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Paris if you want the trip where the major sights sit within walking distance of each other, with a wider range of kitchens and more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Choose Tokyo if you want warmer days, sea at 21°C or more for four summer months, more theme parks within reach and the wider spread of places to drink.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Tokyo leads by 21 points.21
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 21 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 5 km |
| Water distance | — | 5 km |
Places to eat. Paris and Tokyo are level on 90.
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 90 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 6,936 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 25 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 10 points.10
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 66 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 302 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 52 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 17 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
Nightlife. Tokyo leads by 7 points.7
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 6,895 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 3,033 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 44 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 58 |
Nature & day trips. Tokyo leads by 10 points.10
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 58 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | — |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 85 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 4 points.4
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 71 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 40 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 85 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 9 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 34 points.34
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 60 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 121 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Tokyo leads by 8 points.8
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 70 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 62.4 |
| Daily budget | €160 | — |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Tokyo | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 10 °C to 31.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 57 mm to 237 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Paris packs many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so a short stay covers more on foot. Its museums also cluster tightly around the middle, and it has 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Tokyo's 1.
Tokyo holds about twice as many museums overall, though they sit further apart. It also has the swimming: sea at 21°C or more for 4 months, peaking at 26°C in August, where Paris has no warm-sea season at all.
Where they are alike
Eating out is where they land level. Tokyo has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, Paris a somewhat wider range of kitchens, so neither trip is short of choice and the difference is one of variety against density.
Both also have four distinct seasons, cold in January and warm in August, and similar park space near the centre for family days. Nightlife is strong in each, with about half the drinking places within reach of the middle.
Which traveller are you?
The weekend sightseer should take Paris. Notable places stack up within walking distance of the centre, the museums sit close together, and 4 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach against Tokyo's 1.
Families can go either way. Paris has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre and similar park space, so days need less travel; Tokyo has 9 theme parks within reach against Paris's 3.
For nights out, Tokyo has roughly twice as many places to drink, while Paris keeps about three times as many nightclubs. Both are equally strong for eating, so the choice is bars against clubs.
What the numbers don't tell you
No daily budget figure exists for Tokyo, so the two cannot be compared on cost at all. Paris's own figure, €160 a day, stands alone and says nothing about what the other trip would cost. The value ratings rest on a different measure that both cities do have.
The sunshine figure is missing for Paris, since no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is simply unmeasured rather than poor. Tokyo's monthly picture also hides a trap: its warm sea peaks at 26°C in August, the same month that is hot at 32°C and wet.
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. Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).
Paris is at its best from June to August, with highs of 24-26°C and monthly rain of 51-58mm; May is the wettest month at 75mm. Midwinter is the weak spot, with highs of 8°C.
Tokyo suits spring best, highs of 19-24°C with 134-140mm of rain. Autumn is still warm but far wetter, 221-237mm in September and October, and peak summer reaches 32°C with heavy rain. Its winter days are the milder of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 10 m €509-719 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 2 h 10 m €124-187 NRT · 56 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 13 h 30 m €813-1004 HND · 18 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 11 h 35 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 2 h 45 m €296-314 HND · 18 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 11 h 25 m €687-789 CDG · 22 km | 11 h 0 m €789-943 HND · 18 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 11 h 55 m €820-907 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 11 h 55 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 4 h 10 m €255-268 NRT · 56 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €152-378 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 11 h 10 m €572-637 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €61-89 CDG · 22 km | 12 h 10 m no fares HND · 18 km |
| DohaDOH | 6 h 30 m €425-436 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 10 h 25 m €931-1048 1 stop HND · 18 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 11 h 30 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 13 h 55 m no fares NRT · 56 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 | Paris | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Japanese |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Yen (JPY) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | AB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+9 |
| Emergency number | 112 | Police 110, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 27 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre97 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Tokyo |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 14,264,798 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 6,501 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 191 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 125 |
| 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 Paris or Tokyo somewhere new.