VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The Palais des Papes and the cathedral, Avignon
AvignonThe Palais des Papes and the cathedral

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Avignon by BlueBreezeWiki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Athens or Avignon?

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 Athens for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Avignon for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Avignon’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. Athens 70, Avignon 22: Athens leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Avignon 57: Athens leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Avignon 69: Athens leads by 19 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Avignon 30: Athens leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Avignon 70: Avignon leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Avignon 92: Avignon leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Avignon 45: Athens leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Avignon 62: Athens leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Avignon 38: Athens leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Avignon 44: Athens leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Avignon 68: Avignon leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Avignon 35: Athens leads by 7 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Avignon.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

Avignon
53match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Avignon in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
24 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AthensAvignon

Where the figures come from

Avignon 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.

Avignon's sunshine is measured 65 km from the centre, at Marseille / Marignane.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Avignon: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Avignon / Morières-lès-Avignon (8.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensAvignon
Official languageGreekFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m10 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsMarseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre126 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensAvignon
City population643,45292,188
People per km²16,4991,420
Museums within 10 km8811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km26
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Avignon 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.