VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Antwerp or Belfast?

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 Antwerp for

  • shopping
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Belfast for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Belfast’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. Antwerp 15, Belfast 20: Belfast leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp 62, Belfast 50: Antwerp leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Belfast 55: Antwerp leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Belfast 50: Antwerp leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Belfast 74: Belfast leads by 41 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Belfast 66: Antwerp leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Belfast 58: Antwerp leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Belfast 62: Antwerp leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Belfast 45: Antwerp leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Belfast 48: Belfast leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Belfast 55: Antwerp leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Belfast 25: Antwerp leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Belfast.

Your match

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

Antwerp
Best match
55match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Belfast
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Antwerp in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AntwerpBelfast

Where the figures come from

Antwerp 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.

Antwerp's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Uccle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpBelfast
Official languageFrench, German, DutchEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation7 m3 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpBelfast
City population529,247345,006
People per km²2,5423,000
Museums within 10 km388
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km91
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 Antwerp or Belfast 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.