VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Beijing or Cannes?

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 Beijing for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Cannes for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cannes’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. Beijing 6, Cannes 80: Cannes leads by 74 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Cannes 55: Beijing leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Cannes 38: Beijing leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Cannes 42: Beijing leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Cannes 72: Cannes leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Cannes 86: Cannes leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Cannes 56: Beijing leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Cannes 68: Beijing leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Cannes 60: Beijing leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Cannes 22: Beijing leads by 46 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Cannes 38: Beijing leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Cannes 42: Beijing leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Cannes.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Cannes
55match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingCannes

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingCannes
Official languagePutonghuaFrench
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m0 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingCannes
City population21,893,09574,350
People per km²1,3343,793
Museums within 10 km8316
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Cannes 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.