Weekly note

Budapest or Stockholm?

1,361 km apart, in Hungary and Sweden. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

Budapest is the better pick in February to April, August and October to November; Stockholm in May to June and September; either in July. December to January are best avoided at both.

Month by month

Month JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Budapest 4° 5d 8° 5d 12° 6d 17° 6d 21° 9d 27° 9d 28° 6d 29° 5d 23° 6d 17° 5d 10° 8d 5° 8d
Stockholm 1° 8d 1° 5d 6° 5d 10° 5d 16° 7d 21° 6d 22° 10d 21° 9d 17° 7d 11° 8d 5° 7d 2° 8d
Pick neitherBudapestBudapestBudapestStockholmStockholmeitherBudapestStockholmBudapestBudapestneither

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

1,361 km as the crow flies, about 2h 35m in the air.Nonstop, about 3 a day · 3 airlines. By train, about 27h 23m · ICE 1081 · RJX 61. By bus, about 48h 39m · FlixBus N66 · 083.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.