VacationSelector
Grote Markt and the Brabo Fountain, Antwerp
AntwerpGrote Markt and the Brabo Fountain
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Antwerp by Norbert Jakab, Pexels License; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Antwerp or Washington DC?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Antwerp leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Antwerp 62, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Antwerp 73, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Antwerp 56, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antwerp 33, Washington DC 64: Washington DC leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Antwerp 86, Washington DC 73: Antwerp leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Antwerp 62, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Antwerp 75, Washington DC 72: Antwerp leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Antwerp 70, Washington DC 52: Antwerp leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Antwerp 38, Washington DC 28: Antwerp leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antwerp 58, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antwerp 30, Washington DC 26: Antwerp leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antwerp and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Antwerp
55match

Wins on shopping and day trips with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and culture and sights 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AntwerpWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntwerpWashington DC
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation7 m72 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)36 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntwerpWashington DC
City population529,247689,545
People per km²2,5423,896
Museums within 10 km3898
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km90
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antwerp or Washington DC 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.