VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo
TokyoShibuya Crossing

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Tokyo by Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Stockholm or Tokyo?

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 Stockholm for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Tokyo for

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Tokyo’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. Stockholm and Tokyo are level on 40.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Tokyo 84: Tokyo leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 29 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Tokyo 68: Stockholm leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Tokyo 85: Tokyo leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Tokyo 95: Tokyo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Tokyo 98: Tokyo leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Tokyo 99: Tokyo leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Tokyo 48: Tokyo leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Tokyo 86: Tokyo leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Tokyo 78: Tokyo leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Stockholm and Tokyo.

Your match

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

Stockholm
64match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tokyo
Best match
80match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Tokyo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
157 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmTokyo

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Tokyo: 1991-2020 normals, Tokyo (3.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmTokyo
Official languageSwedishJapanese
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation22 m6 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmTokyo
City population984,74814,264,798
People per km²5,2606,501
Museums within 10 km266192
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Tokyo somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.