VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alicante or Cologne?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Cologne for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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. Alicante 82, Cologne 14: Alicante leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Cologne 52: Alicante leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Cologne 67: Cologne leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Cologne 56: Alicante leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Cologne 80: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Cologne 46: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Cologne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Alicante
59match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Cologne
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteCologne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteCologne
Official languageSpanishGerman
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m59 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteCologne
City population366,2211,025,523
People per km²1,8192,532
Museums within 10 km840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Cologne 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.