VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Gdansk?

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
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Barcelona leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Gdansk 50: Barcelona leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Gdansk 68: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Gdansk 52: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Gdansk 58: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Gdansk 62: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Gdansk 62: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Gdansk 72: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Gdansk 42: Barcelona leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Gdansk 52: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Gdansk 36: Barcelona leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Gdansk.

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 shopping with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on prices 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

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaGdansk
Official languageSpanishPolish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 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 centre235 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaGdansk
City population1,731,649487,834
People per km²17,094714
Museums within 10 km9534
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Gdansk 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.