VacationSelector

Barcelona or Cadiz?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Barcelona
✓ Best match
71
match

Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.

Cadiz
49
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather 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 Barcelona if you want the eating and the nights out to carry the trip, with museums, walkable sights and 3 theme parks within reach.

Choose Cadiz if the sea is the point: it starts at the centre rather than 2km out, there are 29 beaches nearby, and July and August pass almost without rain.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

BarcelonaCadiz
Beaches & swimming. Cadiz leads by 5 points.5
BarcelonaCadiz
Score6570
Swim season months33
Beaches 10 km2029
Coast distance2 km0 km
Water distance2 km0 km
Places to eat. Barcelona leads by 46 points.46
BarcelonaCadiz
Score9044
Restaurants within 2 km of centre3,786338
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km4118
Museums & heritage. Barcelona leads by 32 points.32
BarcelonaCadiz
Score6836
Museums within 10 km10523
Museums within 2 km of centre4916
Share of museums within 2 km %4770
Unesco sites within 50 km30
Nightlife. Barcelona leads by 52 points.52
BarcelonaCadiz
Score8230
Drinking venues within 4 km2,711241
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,641175
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %6173
Nightclubs within 4 km2456
Nature & day trips. Barcelona leads by 24 points.24
BarcelonaCadiz
Score5026
Protected land share 50 km %104
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %5145
Park area within 2 km49 hectares24 hectares
Good for families. Barcelona leads by 11 points.11
BarcelonaCadiz
Score6554
Tourist attractions within 2 km6080
Park area within 2 km49 hectares24 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km30
Sights concentration. Barcelona leads by 42 points.42
BarcelonaCadiz
Score7331
Notable places within 2 km25823
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Barcelona and Cadiz are level on 71.
BarcelonaCadiz
Score7171
Price level global60.860.8
Daily budget€122€122
Year-round weather. Cadiz leads by 5 points.5
BarcelonaCadiz
Score7883
Monthly daytime high13.9 °C to 28.9 °C16.2 °C to 28 °C
Monthly rainfall27 mm to 83 mm0 mm to 89 mm
Dry months55
0255075100

Where they differ

Barcelona has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre. It also has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Cadiz has none.

Cadiz puts the sea at the centre itself, 2km out in Barcelona, with 29 beaches against 20, museums packed tightly around the old centre and somewhat more tourist attractions close in.

Where they are alike

Both are swimming cities. The sea starts at the centre in Cadiz and 2km out in Barcelona, with 29 beaches nearby against 20, and a summer window in each when the water is warm enough to swim.

The weather follows the same pattern, warm summers and mild winters, highs of 14-29°C in Barcelona against 16-28°C in Cadiz. Both also hold up for families, with attractions close in at Cadiz and more park space in Barcelona.

Which traveller are you?

Someone travelling to eat and go out: Barcelona, by a wide margin. Many times as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them walkable.

A swimmer who wants the day to start at the water: Cadiz. The sea is at the centre rather than 2km out, there are 29 beaches nearby, and it is the sunnier of the two at 3128 hours a year.

Families with a week to fill: Barcelona has 3 theme parks within reach and about twice the park space near the centre. Cadiz answers with attractions packed close in and no travel needed to reach sand.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value comparison between these two carries no information: the price level is a national figure, identical for both by construction, and the €122 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city. Nothing here says which trip costs less.

Cadiz's beach advantage and its rainless July and August point at the same weeks, which is when those 29 beaches are busiest. Barcelona's warmest sea arrives in late summer, but September and October, still warm enough to swim, are also its wettest months, over 80mm each.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Barcelona
14
14
16
19
22
26
28
29
26
22
18
15
Cadiz
16
17
19
20
23
26
28
28
26
23
20
17
Sea temperature, °C
Barcelona
14
13
13
14
17
21
24
25
24
21
17
15
Cadiz
16
15
16
17
18
21
23
23
22
20
18
17
Rainfall, mm
Barcelona
41
32
40
47
44
27
27
51
83
82
45
36
Cadiz
62
52
54
43
32
6
0
2
29
76
89
73
Daylight, hours per day
Barcelona
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Cadiz
10
11
12
13
14
15
14
14
12
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Barcelona
5
5
7
8
8
9
10
9
7
6
4
4
Cadiz
6
7
8
9
11
12
12
11
9
8
6
5

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Cadiz: 1991-2020 normals, Cadiz Bay / Puntales (5.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Barcelona is at its best in June and July, with highs of 26-28°C, little rain and a sea that climbs to 25°C by August. September and October stay warm but are its wettest, 83mm and 82mm, so late swimming comes with grey days.

Cadiz holds a longer window, May to September, and July and August are effectively dry at 0-2mm, with highs of 28°C and sea at 23°C. Its rain lands in autumn and winter instead, up to 89mm in November.

Getting there

Flying fromBarcelonaCadiz
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
€79-101
BCN · 13 km
2 h 35 m
€83-157
TNG · 95 km
BilbaoBIO
1 h 15 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
1 h 30 m
€112-119
SVQ · 105 km
MadridMAD
1 h 15 m
€114-118
BCN · 13 km
1 h 15 m
no fares
XRY · 31 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
1 h 30 m
€33-92
BCN · 13 km
2 h 25 m
€89-105
SVQ · 105 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 0 m
€37-96
BCN · 13 km
2 h 40 m
no fares
XRY · 31 km
Santiago De CompostelaSCQ
1 h 40 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
SVQ · 105 km
PalmaPMI
55 m
€40-57
BCN · 13 km
1 h 40 m
no fares
XRY · 31 km
LisbonLIS
1 h 50 m
€46-94
BCN · 13 km
1 h 5 m
€36-67
SVQ · 105 km
ValenciaVLC
1 h 0 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
1 h 15 m
€50-96
SVQ · 105 km
MarrakechRAK
2 h 20 m
no fares
BCN · 13 km
1 h 30 m
no fares
SVQ · 105 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

MeasureBarcelonaCadiz
Official languageSpanishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m11 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre229 non-stop destinationsJerez Airport (XRY)31 km from centre23 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaCadiz
City population1,731,649109,950
People per km²17,0949,087
Museums within 10 km9511
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Distinct cuisines in the centre12828
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months3 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.