Chennai or Colombo?
647 km apart, in India and Sri Lanka. 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.
Month by month
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chennai | 28° 4d | 30° 0d | 33° 1d | 35° 2d | 36° 6d | 36° 9d | 34° 13d | 34° 17d | 33° 15d | 31° 18d | 29° 18d | 28° 9d |
| Colombo | 30° 8d | 32° 5d | 31° 12d | 31° 20d | 30° 26d | 29° 27d | 29° 21d | 29° 23d | 29° 25d | 29° 26d | 29° 23d | 30° 15d |
| Colombo, fare from Bengaluru | ₹25,414 | ₹29,136 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ₹26,559 | ₹26,297 | ₹27,535 |
| Pick | either | Chennai | Chennai | Colombo | neither | neither | Colombo | Chennai | Chennai | neither | neither | Chennai |
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. Fares are the typical return from Bengaluru, in INR.
Before you go
- Cost of living — Chennai: very cheap, about 23% of the United States; Colombo: very cheap, about 27% of the United States.
- Currency — Chennai: Indian rupee; Colombo: Sri lankan rupee.
- Plugs — Chennai: type C and D, 230 V; Colombo: type D and G, 230 V.
- Driving — Chennai: on the left; Colombo: on the left.
- Travel advice — Chennai: avoid all travel to parts; Colombo: no advice against travel.
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
647 km as the crow flies, about 1h 42m in the air.Nonstop, about 8 a day · IndiGo, SriLankan Airlines.
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
- Chennai or Ahmedabad
- Chennai or The Andaman Islands
- Chennai or Bengaluru
- Chennai or Delhi
- Chennai or Goa
- Chennai or Hyderabad
- Chennai or Jaipur
- Chennai or Kathmandu
- Chennai or Kochi
- Chennai or Kolkata
- Chennai or Leh
- Chennai or The Maldives
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.