Berlin or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on nature & day trips and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Berlin if the trip is about museums and green space, with protected countryside and parks close in, and you want the warmer summer, up to 25°C in July.
Choose London if you are travelling to eat and go out, with far more restaurants and bars near the centre, more attractions within walking distance for children, and milder winters, around 8-9°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Berlin and London are level on 0.
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 142 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 18 points.18
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,117 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Berlin leads by 7 points.7
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 200 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 81 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 41 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 19 points.19
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 2,114 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 719 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 34 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 135 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. Berlin leads by 9 points.9
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 16 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 141 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. Berlin leads by 1 points.1
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 54 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 141 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 5 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 5 points.5
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 486 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Berlin leads by 6 points.6
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 54 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 3 points.3
| Berlin | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 3.7 °C to 25 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 29 mm to 76 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 1 |
Where they differ
Berlin is the better base for green space and days out: 20% of the land around it is protected against 16% around London, and it has about twice as much park space near the centre.
London is far stronger for eating and going out: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, three times as many drinking places and twice as many nightclubs, with about half of those near the centre rather than spread out as in Berlin.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming city. London counts 47 beaches within reach and Berlin 17, but in neither does the sea reach 21°C in any month, so water is a curiosity rather than a reason to travel.
They are also close on family travel and on walkable centres: London has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, Berlin twice the park space and 5 theme parks within reach against London's 3, and both pack plenty into walking distance.
Which traveller are you?
For someone whose trip is built around dinners and late nights, London: many more restaurants near the centre, a wider spread of kitchens, and clubs concentrated close in rather than scattered across the city.
For a museum-led few days, Berlin: somewhat more museums, set more tightly around the centre, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, the same as London but with less travelling between them.
Families are close to a tie. Berlin gives more park space, 5 theme parks within reach and protected countryside nearby; London gives about twice as many attractions inside walking distance of the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The dataset carries a daily budget for Berlin, about €163, and none at all for London, so no cost comparison between the two is possible here. The value figures rest on a separate measure both cities share, not on what a day actually costs.
A high beach count is not a swimming trip: London has more beaches within reach than Berlin, yet in neither does the sea reach 21°C, so those are coastlines for walking rather than bathing. Likewise Berlin's warmest month is also its wettest, at 76mm, so peak warmth and dry weather do not arrive together.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Berlin: 1991-2020 normals, Berlin / Alexanderplatz (0.9 km from centre). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Berlin suits May to August, with highs of 20-25°C. April is its driest month at 29mm and comfortable for walking, though July brings 76mm, so summer showers can be heavy.
London is the better pick in July and August, at 23-24°C and with steadier summer rain than Berlin. Its winters are milder, highs near 8-9°C, but October and November are its wettest months, at 64-67mm, which makes autumn walking less reliable.
Getting there
| Flying from | Berlin | London |
|---|---|---|
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 35 m no fares BER · 19 km | 2 h 10 m €79-116 LGW · 40 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €102-136 BER · 19 km | 1 h 5 m €92-144 LHR · 23 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 15 m €145-185 BER · 19 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 20 m €159-242 BER · 19 km | 1 h 5 m €146-170 LHR · 23 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m €137-154 BER · 19 km | 1 h 25 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 40 m €133-143 BER · 19 km | 3 h 35 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 25 m €101-133 BER · 19 km | 2 h 0 m €61-144 LGW · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 10 m €737 BER · 19 km | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 4 h 5 m no fares BER · 19 km | 3 h 20 m €128-183 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 9 h 20 m €718-820 2 stops BER · 19 km | 10 h 15 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Berlin | London |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | English |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 34 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)19 km from centre161 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Berlin | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 3,782,202 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 4,244 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 158 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 86 | 116 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Berlin or London somewhere new.