VacationSelector
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

AlUla 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 AlUla for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cologne for

  • nightlife
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. AlUla 3, Cologne 14: Cologne leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. AlUla 28, Cologne 52: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. AlUla 70, Cologne 67: AlUla leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. AlUla 5, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. AlUla 72, Cologne 56: AlUla leads by 16 points.
Day trips. AlUla 20, Cologne 80: Cologne leads by 60 points.
Good for families. AlUla 35, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 35 points.
Getting around. AlUla 15, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 59 points.
Shopping & style. AlUla 15, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 42 points.
Affordability. AlUla 18, Cologne 46: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. AlUla 28, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. AlUla 45, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: AlUla and Cologne.

Your match

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

AlUla
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights with your weighting.

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife 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.

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlUlaCologne

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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. AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlUlaCologne
Official languageArabicGerman
CurrencySaudi Riyal (SAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 911112
Elevation692 m59 m
Main airportAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlUlaCologne
City population32,4131,025,523
People per km²-2,532
Museums within 10 km240
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow AlUla 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.