VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

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

Athens or Ghent?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ghent for

  • getting around
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Athens leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Ghent 62: Athens leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Ghent 72: Athens leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Ghent 55: Athens leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Ghent 35: Athens leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 3 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Ghent 50: Athens leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Ghent 50: Athens leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Ghent 38: Athens leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Ghent 60: Athens leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens 42, Ghent 33: Athens leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Ghent.

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 nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Ghent
54match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AthensGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensGhent
Official languageGreekFrench, German, Dutch
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 m12 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensGhent
City population643,452272,657
People per km²16,4991,728
Museums within 10 km8830
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
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 Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.