Amsterdam or Hamburg?
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 museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on value for money 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 museums, heritage and eating out drive the trip: roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre, twice as many notable places within walking distance, and 5 UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach.
Choose Hamburg if you want more park space near the centre, a night out of similar range, and drier autumn weather, with September to November staying noticeably lighter on rain.
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 | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 33 | 16 |
| Coast distance | 24 km | 22 km |
| Water distance | 24 km | — |
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 10 points.10
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 73 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,957 | 1,150 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 44 | 38 |
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 20 points.20
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 98 | 94 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 69 | 50 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 53 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 2 points.2
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 68 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,543 | 1,339 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,078 | 834 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 114 | 119 |
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 20 points.20
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 21 | 14 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 10 |
| Land share of disc % | 82 | 99 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 89 hectares |
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 8 points.8
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 60 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 74 | 40 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 89 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 9 points.9
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 59 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 196 | 118 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Hamburg leads by 2 points.2
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 60 |
| Price level global | 79.2 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €181 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Amsterdam leads by 2 points.2
| Amsterdam | Hamburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 55 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.1 °C to 23.1 °C | 4.3 °C to 23.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 42 mm to 85 mm | 39 mm to 82 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Amsterdam has about twice as many restaurants near the centre and a somewhat wider range of kitchens, and twice as many notable places within walking distance, so days need less travelling. It has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Hamburg's 1, 33 beaches nearby against 16, and 21% of the surrounding land protected against 14%.
Hamburg's advantage is closer to home: about twice as much park space near the centre, and April, its driest month at 39mm, is drier than anything in Amsterdam's year.
Where they are alike
Nightlife is where the two are most alike. Amsterdam has somewhat more places to drink and both have a comparable number of nightclubs, and in each city most sit close to the centre, so an evening out is walkable rather than a taxi ride.
Weather and price level are close too: both peak at 23°C in July, cool to 4-6°C in winter, and are driest in April at 39-42mm, and their two countries sit at similar national price levels.
Which traveller are you?
For a museum-led trip, Amsterdam: its museums sit more tightly around the centre, and there are 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Hamburg's 1, so a wet afternoon is easy to fill indoors.
Families lean to Amsterdam too, with about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Hamburg's 1. Hamburg answers with roughly twice as much park space near the centre for unstructured days.
Anyone travelling for food and evenings out will find both workable, with drinking places and clubs concentrated centrally in each, but Amsterdam carries about twice as many restaurants near the centre and a wider spread of kitchens.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €181 and €163, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of Amsterdam or Hamburg. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own country's average than these two figures sit from each other, so the gap says nothing about which city costs more.
Amsterdam's beach count also flatters the swimming. The beaches are nearby rather than in the city, neither place has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and the warmest months are also the wettest of the year in both.
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). Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre).
Amsterdam is at its best from June to August, when highs run 21-23°C and the sea peaks at 19°C; those are also its wettest weeks, around 84-85mm in high summer.
Hamburg matches that summer warmth at 23°C with a little less rain, 77-82mm, and stays clearly drier into autumn: about 61-65mm a month from September to November against Amsterdam's 78-81mm. April is the driest month in both, 39-42mm, and suits walking more than swimming.
Getting there
| Flying from | Amsterdam | Hamburg |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €93-112 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 35 m €89-225 HAM · 9 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 25 m €203-231 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 20 m €195-270 HAM · 9 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €166-175 AMS · 12 km | 3 h 0 m €178-237 HAM · 9 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 5 m €152-186 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 10 m no fares HAM · 9 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 20 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 2 h 35 m no fares HAM · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 10 m €130-171 AMS · 12 km | 2 h 25 m €127-153 HAM · 9 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 25 m no fares AMS · 12 km | 1 h 30 m €216-237 1 stop HAM · 9 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 50 m €209-257 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 35 m €167-214 1 stop HAM · 9 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 12 km | 6 h 25 m €357-416 HAM · 9 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €178-300 AMS · 12 km | 1 h 30 m €155-168 1 stop HAM · 9 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 | Hamburg |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 6 m |
| Main airport | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations | Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre119 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Amsterdam | Hamburg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 921,468 | 1,910,160 |
| People per km² | 4,208 | 2,530 |
| Museums within 10 km | 101 | 77 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 98 | 83 |
| 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 Hamburg somewhere new.