VacationSelector
Bryggen across Vågen, Bergen
BergenBryggen across Vågen
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Bergen by Abdullah Guc, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bergen or York?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose York for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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, York 14: Bergen leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Bergen 47, York 42: Bergen leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Bergen 55, York 70: York leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Bergen 40, York 36: Bergen leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bergen 88, York 62: Bergen leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Bergen 38, York 80: York leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Bergen and York are level on 60.
Getting around. Bergen 74, York 72: Bergen leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bergen 33, York 46: York leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Bergen 12, York 38: York leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bergen 58, York 38: Bergen leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bergen 32, York 34: York leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bergen and York.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

York
Best match
49match

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

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
BergenYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bergen: 1991-2020 normals, Bergen / Florida (1.2 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBergenYork
Official languageNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, SámiEnglish
CurrencyNorwegian Krone (NOK)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 112, ambulance 113, fire 110112 or 999
Elevation5 m25 m
Main airportBergen Airport, Flesland (BGO)12 km from centre64 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureBergenYork
City population291,189208,400
People per km²3,339766
Museums within 10 km3124
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 York 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.