VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Bologna?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Bologna for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Bologna’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, Bologna 30: Barcelona leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona and Bologna are level on 82.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Bologna 77: Barcelona leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Bologna 58: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Bologna 52: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Bologna 95: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Bologna 50: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Bologna 76: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Bologna 55: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Bologna 48: Bologna leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Bologna 60: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Bologna 40: Bologna leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Bologna.

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 families with your weighting.

Bologna
60match

Wins on day trips and prices 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

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaBologna

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaBologna
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m54 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaBologna
City population1,731,649387,971
People per km²17,0942,754
Museums within 10 km9568
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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