VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Austin 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 Austin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ghent for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Austin 30, Ghent 25: Austin leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Ghent 62: Austin leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Ghent 55: Austin leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Ghent 35: Austin leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Austin 58, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Austin 55, Ghent 50: Austin leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Ghent 38: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Ghent 60: Austin leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin 40, Ghent 33: Austin leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Ghent.

Your match

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

Austin
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AustinGhent

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. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinGhent
Official language-French, German, Dutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation149 m12 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinGhent
City population961,855272,657
People per km²1,2171,728
Museums within 10 km2130
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Austin 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.