VacationSelector
Your rainbow panorama on top of ARoS, Aarhus
AarhusYour rainbow panorama on top of ARoS
Sint Servaasbrug over the Maas, Maastricht
MaastrichtSint Servaasbrug over the Maas

Photos: Aarhus by Mozzihh, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Maastricht by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Aarhus or Maastricht?

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

  • beaches
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Maastricht for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Maastricht’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, Maastricht 8: Aarhus leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Aarhus 57, Maastricht 58: Maastricht leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Aarhus 61, Maastricht 60: Aarhus leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Aarhus 45, Maastricht 42: Aarhus leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aarhus 56, Maastricht 58: Maastricht leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Aarhus 63, Maastricht 77: Maastricht leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Aarhus 70, Maastricht 55: Aarhus leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Aarhus 75, Maastricht 74: Aarhus leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Aarhus 47, Maastricht 60: Maastricht leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Aarhus 22, Maastricht 38: Maastricht leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aarhus 55, Maastricht 40: Aarhus leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aarhus 44, Maastricht 52: Maastricht leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aarhus and Maastricht.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Aarhus
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Maastricht
52match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Maastricht in July

24 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
73 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AarhusMaastricht

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). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAarhusMaastricht
Official languageDanishDutch
CurrencyDanish Krone (DKK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCEFK230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m49 m
Main airportAarhus Airport (AAR)30 km from centre15 non-stop destinationsMaastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAarhusMaastricht
City population290,598120,227
People per km²3,1932,000
Museums within 10 km1721
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aarhus or Maastricht 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.