VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Bath or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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 and Shanghai are level on 10.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 50 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Shanghai 25: Bath leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Shanghai 55: Bath leads by 23 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Bath
51match

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

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BathShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathShanghai
Official languageEnglishPutonghua
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112 or 999Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation132 m4 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathShanghai
City population94,09224,870,895
People per km²3,2453,922
Museums within 10 km1745
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

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