VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bath or Cologne?

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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Cologne for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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. Bath 10, Cologne 14: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Cologne 52: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Cologne 67: Bath leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Cologne 56: Bath leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Bath and Cologne are level on 80.
Good for families. Bath 50, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Cologne 74: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Cologne 46: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Cologne 50: Bath leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Cologne.

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on nightlife and 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BathCologne

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathCologne
Official languageEnglishGerman
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation132 m59 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathCologne
City population94,0921,025,523
People per km²3,2452,532
Museums within 10 km1740
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Cologne 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.