VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

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

Athens or Gdansk?

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
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Athens leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Gdansk 50: Athens leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Gdansk 68: Athens leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Gdansk 52: Athens leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Gdansk 58: Athens leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Gdansk 62: Athens leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Gdansk 72: Gdansk leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Gdansk 42: Athens leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Gdansk 52: Athens leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Gdansk 36: Athens leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Gdansk.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on prices and getting around 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AthensGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensGdansk
Official languageGreekPolish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m11 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensGdansk
City population643,452487,834
People per km²16,499714
Museums within 10 km8834
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Gdansk 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. 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.