Avignon or Bordeaux?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Avignon if the trip is built around daylight: it runs warmer through the year, peaking at 31°C in July, with the drier summers of the two, more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and museums packed close together.
Choose Bordeaux if evenings matter as much as afternoons, with far more restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many more bars and clubs.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Avignon and Bordeaux are level on 0.
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 55 km | 18 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Bordeaux leads by 24 points.24
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 68 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 336 | 975 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Avignon and Bordeaux are level on 55.
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 35 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 17 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 94 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 6 | 4 |
Nightlife. Bordeaux leads by 32 points.32
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 16 | 48 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 115 | 546 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 97 | 427 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 4 | 32 |
Nature & day trips. Bordeaux leads by 7 points.7
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 51 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 36 | 35 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 31 | 35 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 43 hectares |
Good for families. Bordeaux leads by 3 points.3
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 45 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 15 | 21 |
| Park area within 2 km | 23 hectares | 43 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Bordeaux leads by 5 points.5
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 45 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 40 | 51 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Avignon and Bordeaux are level on 62.
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Avignon leads by 2 points.2
| Avignon | Bordeaux | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 68 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.2 °C to 31.2 °C | 10.5 °C to 27.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 34 mm to 111 mm | 47 mm to 114 mm |
| Dry months | 2 | 0 |
Where they differ
Avignon is the warmer and drier of the two, with daytime highs of 11-31°C across the year against Bordeaux's 11-28°C, and months at 40mm of rain or less that Bordeaux never sees. It also has 6 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 4, and its museums sit tightly around the centre.
Bordeaux has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and nightclubs, and roughly twice as much park space close in.
Where they are alike
Museums and heritage come out level by different routes: Bordeaux has about twice as many museums, while Avignon has more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and museums that sit within a short walk of each other.
Neither is a swimming trip: both have beaches within reach, but neither sees a month of sea at 21°C or more. Both cool to 11°C in January, and both hold family attractions and walkable sights at a similar level.
Which traveller are you?
Someone whose evenings run late, and who wants to eat somewhere different each night, should take Bordeaux: far more restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens and many more bars and clubs, nearly all walkable.
A heritage walker who wants sights within a short walk of each other, and listed places within day-trip reach, is better served by Avignon, which also offers warmer and drier walking weather.
Families split. Bordeaux has more attractions near the centre and about twice the park space; Avignon has 4 theme parks within reach against Bordeaux's 1, so it wins if the trip is built around those.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €160 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Nothing here tells you which trip costs less; compare accommodation for your own dates.
Beaches are the other trap: both have coast within reach, but neither sees a month of sea at 21°C or more, so treat swimming as incidental. And Avignon's warmth cuts both ways: 31°C days are hot for walking a compact centre, and its wettest autumn month brings 111mm.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Avignon: 1991-2020 normals, Nimes / Courbessac (34 km from centre). Bordeaux: 1991-2020 normals, Bordeaux / Merignac (9.5 km from centre).
Avignon's best window is May to June, with highs climbing to 28°C and rain around 44mm. It stays warm through high summer, but autumn turns wet at 111mm in September, so early summer is the safer bet.
Bordeaux comes into its own in July and August, 27-28°C and drier then than at any other time, near 47mm. Its late autumn and winter are the wetter of the two, above 100mm at the peak, so a cool-season visit tilts to Avignon.
Getting there
| Flying from | Avignon | Bordeaux |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 25 m €110-119 MRS · 65 km | 1 h 15 m €114-148 BOD · 11 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 50 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 1 h 45 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 45 m no fares FNI · 38 km | 1 h 30 m €46-73 BOD · 11 km |
| LyonLYS | 1 h 0 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 1 h 15 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 10 m €136-184 1 stop MRS · 65 km | 1 h 50 m €98-125 BOD · 11 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 35 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 1 h 20 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
| AlgiersALG | 1 h 35 m €100-103 MRS · 65 km | 1 h 50 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 55 m €219-245 1 stop MRS · 65 km | 3 h 30 m €237-323 BOD · 11 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 2 h 45 m no fares FNI · 38 km | 2 h 35 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 45 m no fares MRS · 65 km | 7 h 10 m no fares BOD · 11 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Avignon | Bordeaux |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 10 m | 1 m |
| Main airport | Marseille Provence Airport (MRS)65 km from centre125 non-stop destinations | Bordeaux–Mérignac Airport (BOD)11 km from centre94 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Avignon | Bordeaux |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 92,188 | 267,991 |
| People per km² | 1,420 | 5,425 |
| Museums within 10 km | 11 | 18 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 6 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 36 | 81 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Avignon or Bordeaux somewhere new.