Antwerp or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration 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 Antwerp if you want a compact city where museums, bars and restaurants sit within walking reach of each other, and where a day trip can reach 9 UNESCO-listed places.
Choose London if you want depth: far more restaurants and places to drink, many more attractions aimed at children, and a much denser core of notable sights, with slightly milder weather across the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Antwerp and London are level on 0.
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 21 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 13 points.13
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,164 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 42 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 3 points.3
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 41 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 66 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 9 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 36 points.36
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 866 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 657 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 76 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 73 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. London leads by 6 points.6
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 80 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 53 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 29 points.29
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 53 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 35 points.35
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 88 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Antwerp leads by 6 points.6
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 54 |
| Price level global | 76.2 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | €180 | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 5 points.5
| Antwerp | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.5 °C to 23.2 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 47 mm to 90 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Antwerp's advantage is compactness. Most of its drinking places sit near the centre, where about half of London's do, and its museums cluster tightly around the core. It also has 9 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against London's 4.
London is simply bigger: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, many times as many bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance. Families get many more attractions near the centre and about twice the park space, though both have 3 theme parks.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place to swim. London counts 47 beaches within reach and Antwerp 1, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so on both trips water is scenery rather than a plan.
Elsewhere they run close. Both hold substantial museum collections, both put park space near the centre with only a modest share of protected land around them, and both reach 23-24°C in July.
Which traveller are you?
If evenings matter most, London: many times as many bars and clubs, and about three times as many restaurants near the centre, though only about half of that nightlife sits close to the middle.
Families are better served in London too, with many more attractions near the centre and roughly twice the park space, though both cities have 3 theme parks within reach.
For a short heritage trip on foot, Antwerp: its museums cluster tightly around the centre, and 9 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip range, against 4 for London.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The data gives Antwerp a daily budget of about €180 and carries no equivalent figure for London at all, so nothing here tells you which trip costs more. Treat the value comparison as resting on something other than what you will spend.
Counts also flatter a large city. London's 47 nearby beaches say nothing about swimming, since neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and only about half its drinking places sit near the centre, so breadth on paper can mean a journey across town in practice.
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. Antwerp: 1991-2020 normals, Antwerpen / Deurne (5.2 km from centre). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Antwerp works best from May to September, when highs run 19-23°C. April is its driest month at 47mm, so late spring is the steadier bet; by midsummer rain climbs to 80-90mm and arrives with the warmth. Deep winter is its weakest stretch.
London is the drier through most of the year and marginally warmer, peaking at 24°C in July on 46mm. Spring is its clearest stretch, with March down to 38mm. It also holds up better in the cold months, at 8-9°C, so a winter trip tilts its way.
Getting there
| Flying from | Antwerp | London |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 15 m €98-170 BRU · 36 km | 2 h 10 m €124-216 LHR · 23 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 55 m €47-116 BRU · 36 km | 2 h 0 m €61-144 LGW · 40 km |
| GenevaGVA | 1 h 20 m no fares BRU · 36 km | 1 h 35 m €184-208 LHR · 23 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 45 m €179-232 1 stop BRU · 36 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 25 m €36-101 BRU · 36 km | 1 h 45 m €83-138 LGW · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m no fares BRU · 36 km | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| AthensATH | 3 h 10 m €118-155 1 stop BRU · 36 km | 3 h 30 m €258-349 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m no fares BRU · 36 km | 7 h 10 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 0 m no fares BRU · 36 km | 10 h 15 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| CancunCUN | 10 h 25 m no fares AMS · 123 km | 10 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 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 | Antwerp | London |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Dutch | English |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 7 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Brussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Antwerp | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 529,247 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 2,542 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 38 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 9 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 80 | 116 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antwerp or London somewhere new.