VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Bergen or Florence?

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
  • beaches

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

Choose Florence for

  • day trips
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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, Florence 14: Bergen leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, Florence 74: Florence leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, Florence 94: Florence leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, Florence 42: Florence leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, Florence 58: Bergen leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, Florence 98: Florence leads by 60 points.
Good for families. Bergen 60, Florence 45: Bergen leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Bergen 74, Florence 78: Florence leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, Florence 72: Florence leads by 39 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, Florence 35: Florence leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen and Florence are level on 58.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, Florence 42: Florence leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and Florence.

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.

Florence
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights 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

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 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
BergenFlorence

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenFlorence
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 m50 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenFlorence
City population291,189360,930
People per km²3,3393,528
Museums within 10 km31141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
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 Florence 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.