Barcelona or Cannes?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming 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 the evenings matter: many times as many bars and clubs as Cannes, a far wider choice of restaurants, more museums and more for children within walking distance of the centre.
Choose Cannes if the trip is mostly the sea: 68 beaches nearby against Barcelona's 20, a shorter walk to the water and a longer warm-sea season.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cannes leads by 8 points.8
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 73 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 4 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 68 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. Barcelona leads by 40 points.40
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 50 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 3,786 | 473 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 41 | 19 |
Museums & heritage. Barcelona leads by 32 points.32
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 36 |
| Museums within 10 km | 105 | 31 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 49 | 5 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 47 | 16 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
Nightlife. Barcelona leads by 54 points.54
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 82 | 28 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,711 | 188 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,641 | 164 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 61 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 245 | 19 |
Nature & day trips. Barcelona leads by 17 points.17
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 17 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 53 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 13 hectares |
Good for families. Barcelona leads by 40 points.40
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 25 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 60 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 49 hectares | 13 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Barcelona leads by 17 points.17
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 56 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 258 | 95 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Barcelona leads by 9 points.9
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 62 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Barcelona leads by 4 points.4
| Barcelona | Cannes | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.9 °C to 28.9 °C | 13.3 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 27 mm to 83 mm | 13 mm to 138 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 3 |
Where they differ
Barcelona has many times as many bars and clubs as Cannes, and many times as many restaurants across a much wider range of kitchens. It has more museums, sitting tightly around the centre, far more notable places within walking distance, and far more attractions and park space for children close in.
Cannes is the stronger swimming base: 68 beaches nearby against Barcelona's 20, the sea 1km from the centre rather than 2km, and 17% of the land around it protected against 10% around Barcelona.
Where they are alike
Weather is where the two are closest: daytime highs of about 14-29°C across the year, warm from June to September and mild rather than cold in winter, so neither has months that rule a trip out.
Both are swimming cities in the plain sense, with the sea 1-2km from either centre and reaching 25°C in August. On price, each offers only a national estimate, €122 against €160, and neither figure describes the city itself.
Which traveller are you?
If your evenings matter as much as your days, Barcelona: many times as many bars and clubs as Cannes, most of them near the centre, and the wider choice of kitchens between the two.
For a trip built around swimming, Cannes: 68 beaches within reach, the sea 1km from the centre and four months of it at 21°C or more.
Families are better served in Barcelona, with far more attractions and park space close to the centre, though both have 3 theme parks within reach for a day out.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget is a national estimate, €122 in Barcelona's country and €160 in Cannes's, describing restaurant and hotel prices across each country rather than either city. A capital or a heavily visited coastal town can sit a long way from its own national average, so the gap between the two figures says little about what your days will actually cost.
Cannes's beach advantage, 68 beaches and the longest warm-sea window, lands in exactly the two months when both places are hottest and busiest. Its dry summer also sits next to an autumn among the wettest of the year, which an annual weather picture flattens out.
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. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Cannes: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (18 km from centre).
Barcelona holds up better outside high summer. April and May bring 19-22°C and 44-47mm of rain, and October still reaches 22°C, though September and October are its wettest at 82-83mm. Winter highs near 14°C come with less rain than Cannes sees then.
Cannes peaks in July and August: highs of 28°C, sea at 24-25°C and just 13-18mm of rain, the driest months either place has. Its autumn and early winter are the wet half of the year, 91-138mm from October to December.
Getting there
| Flying from | Barcelona | Cannes |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €79-101 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 30 m €78-111 NCE · 20 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 0 m €37-96 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 55 m €76-223 NCE · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 40 m €54-89 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 10 m €69-133 NCE · 20 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 10 m €132-158 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 50 m €170-248 NCE · 20 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m €114-118 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 50 m €137-165 NCE · 20 km |
| PalmaPMI | 55 m €40-57 BCN · 13 km | 1 h 15 m no fares MRS · 146 km |
| LisbonLIS | 1 h 50 m €46-94 BCN · 13 km | 2 h 25 m €153-221 1 stop NCE · 20 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m €369-388 BCN · 13 km | 6 h 20 m €375-433 NCE · 20 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 55 m €562-701 BCN · 13 km | 8 h 10 m €666-799 1 stop NCE · 20 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 55 m €459-799 2 stops BCN · 13 km | 11 h 35 m no fares MRS · 146 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 | Barcelona | Cannes |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 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 | 9 m | 0 m |
| Main airport | Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre229 non-stop destinations | Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre129 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Barcelona | Cannes |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,731,649 | 74,350 |
| People per km² | 17,094 | 3,793 |
| Museums within 10 km | 95 | 16 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 128 | 38 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 4 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Cannes somewhere new.