Reykjavik or Stockholm?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 Reykjavik if the point of the trip is what lies outside the city: a far larger share of protected land within reach, and day trips that matter more than the centre itself.
Choose Stockholm if you want museums, restaurants and bars close together and walkable, and a real summer, with July highs near 24°C rather than 15°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Reykjavik and Stockholm are level on 60.
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 33 | 73 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Stockholm leads by 27 points.27
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 76 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 261 | 1,558 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Stockholm leads by 19 points.19
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 69 |
| Museums within 10 km | 34 | 74 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 47 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 68 | 64 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
Nightlife. Stockholm leads by 37 points.37
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 64 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 192 | 1,090 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 166 | 689 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 86 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 10 | 106 |
Nature & day trips. Reykjavik leads by 18 points.18
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 41 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 56 | 77 |
| Park area within 2 km | 28 hectares | 104 hectares |
Good for families. Stockholm leads by 15 points.15
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 57 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 21 | 23 |
| Park area within 2 km | 28 hectares | 104 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Stockholm leads by 31 points.31
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 79 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 61 | 357 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Stockholm leads by 16 points.16
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 57 |
| Price level global | 102.8 | 80.3 |
| Daily budget | €243 | €169 |
Year-round weather. Stockholm leads by 16 points.16
| Reykjavik | Stockholm | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 3.2 °C to 14.9 °C | 1 °C to 23.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 97 mm | 27 mm to 66 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 5 |
Where they differ
Reykjavik is the stronger base for getting out of town: 16% of the surrounding land is protected against 7% around Stockholm, and the interest lies beyond the centre.
Stockholm packs many times as many notable places within walking distance of its centre, along with many times as many bars and clubs and far more restaurants near the centre, across a somewhat wider range of kitchens. It also has about twice as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Reykjavik's 1.
Where they are alike
The sea reaches both centres, 0km from each, and both offer beach swimming of a sort: 73 beaches around Stockholm, 33 around Reykjavik. Neither, though, has a single month with sea at 21°C or more, so swimming is a brief summer proposition in both.
For families they are comparable, with roughly the same number of tourist attractions near the centre and theme parks within reach of both. Cost guidance, too, exists only at national level for each.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and drivers heading out of town should pick Reykjavik: 16% of the surrounding land is protected against 7%, and the day-trip country, rather than the city, is the reason to come.
Anyone travelling for museums, eating and evenings out belongs in Stockholm, with about twice as many museums, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, far more restaurants near the centre and many times as many bars.
Families are better served in Stockholm too: about three times as much park space near the centre, 2 theme parks within reach against 1, and summers warm enough to spend outdoors.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €243 for Iceland and €169 for Sweden, are national estimates for restaurant and hotel prices, not measurements of either city. A capital can sit further from its own country's average than these two figures sit from each other, so read them as country context rather than as what your trip costs.
Beach access looks good in both, and Stockholm has more beaches, but the sea never reaches 21°C in either, so swimming is short-lived. Stockholm's generally drier year also conceals its wettest months falling in summer, when you would actually be there.
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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Stockholm: 1991-2020 normals, Stockholm Observatoriet (26.4 km from centre).
Reykjavik's window is narrow: June and July, when highs reach 13-15°C and rainfall falls to 41-50mm, its driest stretch. August brings the warmest sea, 11°C, but rain climbs back to 66mm, and by autumn and winter months run 80-97mm.
Stockholm has a longer season. Spring is its driest, 27-34mm from February to May, with May already at 17°C. July peaks at 24°C and August at 22°C, both wetter at 60-66mm, and September still holds 17°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Reykjavik | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 55 m €245-283 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 25 m €89-139 ARN · 36 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 3 h 10 m €216-282 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 1 h 20 m €84-99 ARN · 36 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 2 h 45 m no fares KEF · 37 km | 1 h 5 m €77-102 1 stop ARN · 36 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 3 h 5 m €293-407 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 2 h 0 m €153-185 ARN · 36 km |
| HelsinkiHEL | 3 h 35 m €268-383 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 1 h 10 m €66-74 ARN · 36 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 3 h 20 m €247-346 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 30 m €91-121 ARN · 36 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 5 h 35 m €389-592 KEF · 37 km | 8 h 5 m no fares ARN · 36 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 3 h 30 m €313-393 2 stops KEF · 37 km | 2 h 5 m €152-213 1 stop ARN · 36 km |
| MunichMUC | 3 h 50 m €275-453 1 stop KEF · 37 km | 2 h 15 m €202-238 1 stop ARN · 36 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 0 m no fares KEF · 37 km | 8 h 30 m no fares ARN · 36 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 2026-09 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 | Reykjavik | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Icelandic | Swedish |
| Currency | Iceland Krona (ISK) | Swedish Krona (SEK) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 8 m | 22 m |
| Main airport | Keflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations | Stockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre172 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 16 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Reykjavik | Stockholm |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 138,772 | 984,748 |
| People per km² | 569 | 5,260 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 266 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 42 | 81 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Reykjavik or Stockholm somewhere new.