VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Tirana for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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. Quito 5, Tirana 46: Tirana leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Tirana 57: Tirana leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Tirana 42: Quito leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Tirana 58: Tirana leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Tirana 62: Quito leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Tirana 40: Tirana leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Tirana 54: Tirana leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Tirana 32: Quito leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Tirana 76: Quito leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Tirana 32: Quito leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Tirana 27: Quito leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Tirana.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Quito
50match

Wins on culture and sights and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tirana
49match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 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
QuitoTirana

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoTirana
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern QuichuaAlbanian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Lek (ALL)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation2,850 m110 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoTirana
City population1,763,275389,323
People per km²4,7359,314
Museums within 10 km1611
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito 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. 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. 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.