VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Barcelona or Philadelphia?

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
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Barcelona leads by 39 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Philadelphia 62: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Philadelphia 72: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Philadelphia 55: Barcelona leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Philadelphia 52: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Barcelona and Philadelphia are level on 80.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Philadelphia 68: Barcelona leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Philadelphia 66: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Philadelphia 57: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Philadelphia 40: Barcelona leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Philadelphia 26: Barcelona leads by 12 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Philadelphia.

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 nightlife with your weighting.

Philadelphia
57match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaPhiladelphia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaPhiladelphia
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m12 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaPhiladelphia
City population1,731,6491,603,797
People per km²17,0944,339
Museums within 10 km9554
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

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