VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Galway?

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

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Barcelona leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Galway 45: Barcelona leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Galway 33: Barcelona leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Galway 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Galway 78: Galway leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Galway 56: Barcelona leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Galway 42: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Galway 58: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Galway 38: Barcelona leads by 37 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Galway 28: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Galway 57: Barcelona leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Galway 28: Barcelona leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Galway.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaGalway
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 m25 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaGalway
City population1,731,64983,456
People per km²17,0941,563
Museums within 10 km954
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Galway 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.