VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bergen or Bologna?

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 Bergen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Bologna for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Bologna’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. Bergen 20, Bologna 30: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Bologna 82: Bologna leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Bologna 77: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Bologna 58: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Bologna 52: Bergen leads by 36 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Bologna 95: Bologna leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Bologna 50: Bergen leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Bologna 76: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Bologna 55: Bologna leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Bologna 48: Bologna leads by 36 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, Bologna 60: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Bologna 40: Bologna leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bergen
46match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bergen in July

20 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenBologna

Where the figures come from

Bologna 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.

Bologna's sunshine is measured 82 km from the centre, at Cervia.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenBologna
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiItalian
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112
Elevation5 m54 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenBologna
City population291,189387,971
People per km²3,3392,754
Museums within 10 km3168
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bergen or Bologna 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.