VacationSelector
Your rainbow panorama on top of ARoS, Aarhus
AarhusYour rainbow panorama on top of ARoS
Ferries off the Kordon promenade, Izmir
IzmirFerries off the Kordon promenade

Photos: Aarhus by Mozzihh, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Izmir by Toygar Par, Pexels License.

Aarhus or Izmir?

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 Aarhus for

  • families
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Izmir for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Izmir’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. Aarhus 34, Izmir 62: Izmir leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Aarhus 57, Izmir 72: Izmir leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Aarhus 61, Izmir 55: Aarhus leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Aarhus 45, Izmir 60: Izmir leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aarhus 56, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Aarhus 63, Izmir 86: Izmir leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Aarhus 70, Izmir 55: Aarhus leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Aarhus 75, Izmir 63: Aarhus leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Aarhus 47, Izmir 55: Izmir leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Aarhus 22, Izmir 66: Izmir leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aarhus 55, Izmir 48: Aarhus leads by 7 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aarhus 44, Izmir 57: Izmir leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aarhus and Izmir.

Your match

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

Aarhus
52match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Izmir
Best match
62match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aarhus in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
17 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Izmir in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AarhusIzmir

Where the figures come from

Aarhus's temperatures are measured 30 km from the centre, at Tirstrup.

Aarhus 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Aarhus: 1991-2020 normals, Tirstrup (29.8 km from centre). Izmir: 1991-2020 normals, Izmir (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAarhusIzmir
Official languageDanishTurkish
CurrencyDanish Krone (DKK)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCEFK230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m2 m
Main airportAarhus Airport (AAR)30 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsAdnan Menderes International Airport (ADB)13 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAarhusIzmir
City population290,5984,493,242
People per km²3,1934,760
Museums within 10 km1729
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aarhus or Izmir 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.