VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Baku or Thessaloniki?

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 Baku for

Baku does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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. Baku 40, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Baku 62, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 34 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku and Thessaloniki are level on 52.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Baku and Thessaloniki.

Your match

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

Baku
48match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
BakuThessaloniki

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuThessaloniki
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageGreek
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m6 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuThessaloniki
City population2,300,500309,617
People per km²1,07516,042
Museums within 10 km5032
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Thessaloniki 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.