VacationSelector
A canal bridge in autumn, Amsterdam
AmsterdamA canal bridge in autumn
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Amsterdam by Hans, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Amsterdam or New York?

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 Amsterdam for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • getting around

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

Choose New York for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. Amsterdam 25, New York 50: New York leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Amsterdam 58, New York 92: New York leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Amsterdam 82, New York 89: New York leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Amsterdam 77, New York 97: New York leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amsterdam 47, New York 55: New York leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Amsterdam 87, New York 68: Amsterdam leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Amsterdam 72, New York 70: Amsterdam leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Amsterdam 86, New York 82: Amsterdam leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Amsterdam 68, New York 97: New York leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Amsterdam 22, New York 12: Amsterdam leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amsterdam 78, New York 99: New York leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amsterdam and New York are level on 42.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amsterdam and New York.

Your match

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

Amsterdam
62match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on food and drink and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Amsterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AmsterdamNew York

Where the figures come from

Amsterdam 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.

Amsterdam's sunshine is measured 35 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (12 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmsterdamNew York
Official languageDutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation-2 m25 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamNew York
City population921,4688,804,190
People per km²4,2087,256
Museums within 10 km101157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or New York 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. 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.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.