VacationSelector
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Reykjavik or St. Pete Beach?

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 Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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. Reykjavik 12, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Reykjavik 42, St. Pete Beach 40: Reykjavik leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Reykjavik 25, St. Pete Beach 18: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Reykjavik 45, St. Pete Beach 28: Reykjavik leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Reykjavik 92, St. Pete Beach 57: Reykjavik leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Reykjavik 35, St. Pete Beach 58: St. Pete Beach leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Reykjavik 55, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Reykjavik 55, St. Pete Beach 30: Reykjavik leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Reykjavik 25, St. Pete Beach 20: Reykjavik leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Reykjavik 6, St. Pete Beach 32: St. Pete Beach leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Reykjavik 45, St. Pete Beach 20: Reykjavik leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Reykjavik 88, St. Pete Beach 42: Reykjavik leads by 46 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Reykjavik and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Reykjavik
44match

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

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ReykjavikSt. Pete Beach

Where the figures come from

St. Pete Beach has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureReykjavikSt. Pete Beach
Official languageIcelandic-
CurrencyIceland Krona (ISK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTCUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation8 m2 m
Main airportKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureReykjavikSt. Pete Beach
City population138,7728,879
People per km²569173
Museums within 10 km232
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Reykjavik or St. Pete Beach 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.