Amsterdam or Frankfurt?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on year-round weather and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Amsterdam if you want the denser city: more restaurants and bars near the centre, more museums sitting close together, and 33 beaches within reach rather than a handful.
Choose Frankfurt if you want warmth and open ground: summer highs of 26°C, drier months through the year, more protected land around the city and roughly three times the park space near the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 40 points.40
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 33 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 327 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | — |
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 13 points.13
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,957 | 1,160 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 44 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 11 points.11
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 69 |
| Museums within 10 km | 98 | 79 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 69 | 43 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 54 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 11 points.11
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 59 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,543 | 931 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,078 | 691 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 74 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 114 | 56 |
Nature & day trips. Frankfurt leads by 4 points.4
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 64 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 21 | 28 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 82 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 124 hectares |
Good for families. Amsterdam and Frankfurt are level on 68.
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 68 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 74 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 124 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 7 points.7
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 61 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 196 | 129 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Frankfurt leads by 2 points.2
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 60 |
| Price level global | 79.2 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €181 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Frankfurt leads by 5 points.5
| Amsterdam | Frankfurt | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.1 °C to 23.1 °C | 5 °C to 26.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 42 mm to 85 mm | 38 mm to 68 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Amsterdam has about twice as many restaurants near the centre as Frankfurt, and a wider range of kitchens, plus about twice as many bars and clubs. It also has more museums, clustered tightly around the middle, and 33 beaches nearby against Frankfurt's 4.
Frankfurt has the open ground: 28% of the land around it is protected against 21% around Amsterdam, and about three times as much park space near the centre. It also runs warmer, 5-26°C across the year against 6-23°C, with one month at 40mm of rain or less.
Where they are alike
Families come out level, by different routes. Amsterdam has about twice as many attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Frankfurt's 2; Frankfurt answers with roughly three times as much park space close in.
They are close, too, on cost, day trips and weather: the national price estimates behind them, €181 and €163, sit near each other, both have protected countryside within day-trip range, and neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more.
Which traveller are you?
A city-break traveller after museums and evenings out should take Amsterdam. It has more museums, packed tightly around the centre, about twice as many bars and clubs, and about twice as many notable places within walking distance.
A family is close to a coin toss. Frankfurt has roughly three times the park space near the centre; Amsterdam has about twice as many attractions and 3 theme parks within reach against 2.
Anyone chasing warmth and water is caught between them. Frankfurt is the warmer city, reaching 26°C in summer, but has almost no beaches; Amsterdam has 33, though the sea peaks at 19°C.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget is a national estimate of restaurant and hotel prices, €181 for Amsterdam's country and €163 for Frankfurt's, not a measurement of either city. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than these two figures sit from each other, so the gap tells you nothing about what either trip will cost.
The beach count is a count of places, not of swimming weather: Amsterdam's 33 beaches face a sea that peaks at 19°C, and its warmest months are also its wettest. Frankfurt has no sea reading, so its weather advantage rests on air temperature alone.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre). Frankfurt: 1991-2020 normals, Frankfurt Westend (2 km from centre).
Amsterdam is at its best from May to August, with highs of 18-23°C and the sea at its warmest, 19°C, towards the end of that run. The catch is rain, which builds through the summer to around 85mm in the peak months and stays heavy into autumn.
Frankfurt is the stronger pick in high summer, reaching 26°C in July and August on rain nearer 60mm, and its season opens earlier: April already reaches 17°C on 38mm, drier than anything Amsterdam records.
Getting there
| Flying from | Amsterdam | Frankfurt |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €93-112 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 25 m €74-124 FRA · 13 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €166-175 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 50 m €135-301 FRA · 13 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 10 m €130-171 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 55 m €102-123 FRA · 13 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m €512-556 1 stop AMS · 12 km | 7 h 55 m €537-713 FRA · 13 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 20 m €145-238 1 stop FRA · 13 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 20 m €150-227 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 10 m €157-188 FRA · 13 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 35 m €106-155 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 15 m €71-108 FRA · 13 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 12 km | 6 h 20 m €296-339 1 stop FRA · 13 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 11 h 10 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 11 h 5 m €693-750 3 stops FRA · 13 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 10 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 12 h 10 m no fares FRA · 13 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Amsterdam | Frankfurt |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Dutch | German |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | -2 m | 101 m |
| Main airport | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations | Frankfurt Main Airport (FRA)13 km from centre293 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Amsterdam | Frankfurt |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 921,468 | 775,790 |
| People per km² | 4,208 | 3,124 |
| Museums within 10 km | 101 | 53 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 98 | 71 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Frankfurt somewhere new.