VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Three Graces at Pier Head, Liverpool
LiverpoolThe Three Graces at Pier Head

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Liverpool by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Liverpool?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Liverpool for

  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Liverpool’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, Liverpool 22: Barcelona leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Liverpool 48: Barcelona leads by 34 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Liverpool 64: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Liverpool 66: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Liverpool 52: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Liverpool 64: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Liverpool 55: Barcelona leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Liverpool 68: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Liverpool 52: Barcelona leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Liverpool 50: Liverpool leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Liverpool 66: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Liverpool 22: Barcelona leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Liverpool.

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.

Liverpool
52match

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

Liverpool in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaLiverpool

Where the figures come from

Liverpool's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Manchester Airport.

Liverpool 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). Liverpool: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (47.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaLiverpool
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation9 m70 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsLiverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)12 km from centre75 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaLiverpool
City population1,731,649513,441
People per km²17,0944,592
Museums within 10 km9531
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 Liverpool 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.