VacationSelector

Amsterdam or Maastricht?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Amsterdam
✓ Best match
65
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and nightlife with your weighting.

Maastricht
41
match

Wins on year-round weather 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 evenings out and the range of places to eat: many times more restaurants, bars and clubs near the centre, more museums, and a core dense with notable places within walking distance.

Choose Maastricht if a small, quiet city suits you better, with slightly warmer and drier high summer, highs of 24°C in July, and 5 theme parks within reach for a family trip.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

AmsterdamMaastricht
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 40 points.40
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score400
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km336
Coast distance24 km118 km
Water distance24 km—
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 35 points.35
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score8348
Restaurants within 2 km of centre1,957338
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km4422
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 27 points.27
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score8053
Museums within 10 km9823
Museums within 2 km of centre6913
Share of museums within 2 km %7057
Unesco sites within 50 km55
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 40 points.40
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score7030
Drinking venues within 4 km1,543223
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,078182
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7082
Nightclubs within 4 km11413
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 23 points.23
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score6037
Protected land share 50 km %2119
Landscape blanket share 50 km %011
Land share of disc %82100
Park area within 2 km49 hectares33 hectares
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 22 points.22
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score6846
Tourist attractions within 2 km7415
Park area within 2 km49 hectares33 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km35
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 32 points.32
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score6836
Notable places within 2 km19632
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Amsterdam and Maastricht are level on 58.
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score5858
Price level global79.279.2
Daily budget€181€181
Year-round weather. Maastricht leads by 2 points.2
AmsterdamMaastricht
Score5759
Monthly daytime high6.1 °C to 23.1 °C5.7 °C to 23.8 °C
Monthly rainfall42 mm to 85 mm41 mm to 84 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Amsterdam has many times as many restaurants near the centre, and a much wider range of kitchens. It also has many times as many bars and nightclubs, most of them central, and many times as many notable places within walking distance, so days need less planning. It has 33 beaches nearby against Maastricht's 6.

Maastricht offers less of all this. What it does have is 5 theme parks within reach against Amsterdam's 3, and slightly warmer July and August days at 24°C.

Where they are alike

The two share a climate. Daytime highs run about 6-23°C across the year in both, and neither gets a month at 40mm of rain or less, so wet-weather plans matter in either place at any time of year.

They also line up on heritage and countryside. Each has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and the land around them is similarly protected, 21% around Amsterdam and 19% around Maastricht.

Which traveller are you?

Someone travelling for food and evenings out should go to Amsterdam. It has many times as many restaurants, and a far wider range of kitchens, plus many times as many bars and clubs, mostly near the centre.

A family choosing between the two will find Amsterdam has many times as many attractions near the centre and more park space, though Maastricht counters with 5 theme parks within reach against 3.

A walker who wants a compact trip is also better served in Amsterdam, where notable places cluster tightly around the centre. Maastricht suits the traveller who wants a small city and few fixed plans.

What the numbers don't tell you

The two carry the same value figure because it is a national price level, identical for both by construction. The comparison tells you nothing about which city costs less, and the €181 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place.

Amsterdam's beach count flatters it. Neither city has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, and Amsterdam's own peaks at 19°C, so beaches here mean walks and sitting rather than swimming. Its warmest months are also its wettest, near 85mm, which the warmth alone does not show.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Amsterdam
6
7
11
15
18
21
23
23
20
15
10
7
Maastricht
6
7
11
15
19
22
24
24
20
15
10
6
Sea temperature, °C
Amsterdam
6
5
6
8
12
15
17
19
17
15
11
8
Maastricht
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Amsterdam
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Maastricht
64
58
55
41
58
69
73
84
58
65
62
74
Daylight, hours per day
Amsterdam
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Maastricht
9
10
12
14
16
16
16
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Amsterdam
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2
Maastricht
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Amsterdam's window is July and August: highs of 23°C, and the sea at its warmest in August, 19°C. Those are also its wettest months, at 84-85mm, so build in indoor time.

Maastricht runs a degree warmer in high summer at 24°C and drier through July at 73mm. Its clearer edge is September, still 20°C, with 58mm of rain against Amsterdam's 78mm. Winter is cold and wet in both, and neither city is worth the trip for weather then.

Getting there

Flying fromAmsterdamMaastricht
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 5 m
€93-112
AMS · 12 km
1 h 10 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 35 m
€512-556
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
7 h 35 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
BarcelonaBCN
2 h 10 m
€130-171
AMS · 12 km
2 h 0 m
€148-192
1 stop
EIN · 70 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
1 h 35 m
€106-155
AMS · 12 km
1 h 30 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
ValenciaVLC
2 h 25 m
€152-192
AMS · 12 km
2 h 20 m
€155
EIN · 70 km
RomeFCO, CIA
2 h 10 m
€202-212
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
2 h 5 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
LisbonLIS
2 h 50 m
€188-239
AMS · 12 km
2 h 45 m
no fares
EIN · 70 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 55 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
10 h 0 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 45 m
€318-346
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
6 h 45 m
no fares
BRU · 85 km
CuracaoCUR
9 h 55 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
10 h 0 m
no fares
DUS · 90 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

MeasureAmsterdamMaastricht
Official languageDutchDutch
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 number112 or 911112 or 911
Elevation-2 m49 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsMaastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamMaastricht
City population921,468120,227
People per km²4,2082,000
Museums within 10 km10121
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km55
Distinct cuisines in the centre9833
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone–

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Maastricht somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.