VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Athens or Valencia?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Valencia for

  • families
  • getting around
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Valencia 74: Athens leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Valencia 68: Athens leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Valencia 66: Athens leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Valencia 60: Athens leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Valencia 70: Athens leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Valencia 55: Athens leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens and Valencia are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Valencia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Athens
67match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Valencia
65match

Wins on families 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AthensValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensValencia
Official languageGreekSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation74 m15 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensValencia
City population643,452840,792
People per km²16,4996,242
Museums within 10 km8845
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Valencia 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.