VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Catania?

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

  • shopping
  • getting around
  • families

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

Choose Catania for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Catania’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, Catania 72: Barcelona leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Catania 77: Barcelona leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Catania 62: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Catania 60: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Catania 83: Catania leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Catania 84: Catania leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Catania 50: Barcelona leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Catania 48: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Catania 42: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Catania 60: Catania leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Catania 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Catania 30: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Catania.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on shopping and getting around with your weighting.

Catania
60match

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaCatania

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaCatania
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 m7 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaCatania
City population1,731,649311,584
People per km²17,0941,704
Museums within 10 km9525
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

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