VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Dublin?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Dublin for

Dublin does not lead in any category we score.

What lies behind each score is written up on Dublin’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, Dublin 27: Barcelona leads by 48 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Dublin 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Dublin 64: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Dublin 62: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Dublin 70: Barcelona leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Dublin 72: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Dublin 57: Barcelona leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Dublin 66: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Dublin 54: Barcelona leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Dublin 20: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Dublin 65: Barcelona leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Dublin 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 Dublin.

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.

Dublin
53match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaDublin

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaDublin
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation9 m20 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaDublin
City population1,731,649592,713
People per km²17,0945,154
Museums within 10 km9540
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 Dublin 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.