VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Athens or Dublin?

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

  • beaches
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Dublin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Dublin’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, Dublin 27: Athens leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Dublin 50: Athens leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Dublin 64: Athens leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Dublin 62: Athens leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Dublin 70: Dublin leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Dublin 72: Athens leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Dublin 57: Athens leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Athens and Dublin are level on 66.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Dublin 54: Athens leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Dublin 20: Athens leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Dublin 65: Dublin leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Dublin 25: Athens leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Dublin.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Dublin
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts 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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AthensDublin

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensDublin
Official languageGreekEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m20 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensDublin
City population643,452592,713
People per km²16,4995,154
Museums within 10 km8840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Dublin 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.