VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Belfast?

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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Belfast for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Belfast’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. Barcelona 75, Belfast 20: Barcelona leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Belfast 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Belfast 55: Barcelona leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Belfast 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Belfast 74: Belfast leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Belfast 66: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Belfast 58: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Belfast 62: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Belfast 45: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Belfast 48: Belfast leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Belfast 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Belfast 25: Barcelona leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Belfast.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Belfast
51match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaBelfast

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaBelfast
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation9 m3 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaBelfast
City population1,731,649345,006
People per km²17,0943,000
Museums within 10 km958
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Belfast 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.