VacationSelector

Amsterdam or Manchester?

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 museums & heritage and good for families with your weighting.

Manchester
47
match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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 the trip is built around museums, walkable sightseeing or days out with children: a far deeper museum offering than Manchester, about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and warmer summers peaking at 23°C.

Choose Manchester if you want a compact weekend of eating and evenings out, with more central park space for the daytime and a drier July, at 60mm.

Scoreboard

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

AmsterdamManchester
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 12 points.12
AmsterdamManchester
Score4028
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km3310
Coast distance24 km27 km
Water distance24 km27 km
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 15 points.15
AmsterdamManchester
Score8368
Restaurants within 2 km of centre1,957853
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km4435
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 38 points.38
AmsterdamManchester
Score8042
Museums within 10 km9823
Museums within 2 km of centre6911
Share of museums within 2 km %7048
Unesco sites within 50 km52
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 8 points.8
AmsterdamManchester
Score7062
Drinking venues within 4 km1,5431,029
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,078792
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7077
Nightclubs within 4 km11482
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 24 points.24
AmsterdamManchester
Score6036
Protected land share 50 km %2117
Landscape blanket share 50 km %017
Land share of disc %8299
Park area within 2 km49 hectares63 hectares
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 36 points.36
AmsterdamManchester
Score6832
Tourist attractions within 2 km745
Park area within 2 km49 hectares63 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km32
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 20 points.20
AmsterdamManchester
Score6848
Notable places within 2 km19661
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Amsterdam leads by 4 points.4
AmsterdamManchester
Score5854
Price level global79.284.9
Daily budget€181—
Year-round weather. Amsterdam leads by 3 points.3
AmsterdamManchester
Score5754
Monthly daytime high6.1 °C to 23.1 °C7.2 °C to 20.8 °C
Monthly rainfall42 mm to 85 mm51 mm to 95 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Amsterdam has many times as many museums as Manchester, and they cluster tightly around the centre; it also has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Manchester's 2. For families it has far more tourist attractions near the centre, and 3 theme parks within reach against 2.

Manchester's counter on these fronts is narrow: it has more park space near the centre, which matters if a day out means open ground rather than ticketed attractions. The land around it is a little less protected, 17% against Amsterdam's 21%.

Where they are alike

Neither city deals in extremes of temperature. Amsterdam runs 6-23°C across the year and Manchester 7-21°C, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so a waterproof is part of the packing list whenever you go.

Nights out follow the same pattern in both: the drinking places and clubs sit near the centre, so an evening can be walked. Both are inland, with the sea about 24km and 27km away and never warm enough for casual swimming, so the coast is an outing rather than the point.

Which traveller are you?

A traveller here for museums and heritage should pick Amsterdam: many times more museums than Manchester, held close to the centre, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach rather than 2.

For a weekend of eating and going out, the two are closest. Amsterdam has about twice as many restaurants near the centre and a somewhat wider range of kitchens; Manchester covers the same ground on a smaller scale.

Parents get more out of Amsterdam, with far more attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against 2, though Manchester's greater central park space suits children who mainly need room to run.

What the numbers don't tell you

No daily cost figure exists for Manchester in this data, so the two cannot be compared on price at all. Amsterdam's €181 a day stands on its own, and the value-for-money ratings rest on a different measure that both cities do have; read them as a ranking, not as a price tag.

Amsterdam's 33 nearby beaches describe access rather than swimming: the water peaks at 19°C in August and the coast is 24km from the centre. Its warmest months are also among its wettest, so the weeks that look best on temperature are not the driest ones.

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
Manchester
7
8
10
13
17
19
21
20
18
14
10
8
Sea temperature, °C
Amsterdam
6
5
6
8
12
15
17
19
17
15
11
8
Manchester
7
6
7
9
11
14
16
17
16
14
11
9
Rainfall, mm
Amsterdam
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Manchester
67
62
51
61
59
63
60
73
71
95
86
84
Daylight, hours per day
Amsterdam
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Manchester
8
10
12
14
16
17
17
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Amsterdam
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2
Manchester
2
2
3
5
6
6
6
6
4
3
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). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Amsterdam is the stronger summer pick, with highs of 23°C in July and August and the sea at its warmest, 19°C. April is its driest month at 42mm, worth knowing given that July and August each bring over 84mm.

Manchester peaks lower, at 21°C in July, but that month is drier there, 60mm against 85mm. Its autumn tips the other way: October reaches 95mm, so a late-year trip is better spent in Amsterdam.

Getting there

Flying fromAmsterdamManchester
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 5 m
€93-112
AMS · 12 km
55 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
BarcelonaBCN
2 h 10 m
€130-171
AMS · 12 km
2 h 15 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
1 h 35 m
€106-155
AMS · 12 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
CopenhagenCPH
1 h 25 m
€171-212
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
1 h 50 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
MadridMAD
2 h 25 m
€160-183
AMS · 12 km
2 h 20 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
OsloOSL, TRF
1 h 50 m
€155-209
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 35 m
€512-556
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
7 h 0 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 45 m
€318-346
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
7 h 20 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
BridgetownBGI
9 h 5 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
8 h 35 m
no fares
MAN · 15 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
11 h 10 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
11 h 30 m
no fares
MAN · 15 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

MeasureAmsterdamManchester
Official languageDutchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112 or 911112 or 999
Elevation-2 m38 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre210 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamManchester
City population921,468547,627
People per km²4,2084,737
Museums within 10 km10128
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Distinct cuisines in the centre9863
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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

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.