VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Budapest by Perituss, CC0.

Bologna or Budapest?

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 Bologna for

  • day trips
  • food and drink
  • beaches

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

Choose Budapest for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Budapest’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. Bologna 30, Budapest 25: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Budapest 63: Bologna leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Budapest 80: Budapest leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Budapest 78: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Budapest 58: Budapest leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Budapest 68: Bologna leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Budapest 62: Budapest leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Budapest 78: Budapest leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna and Budapest are level on 55.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Budapest 62: Budapest leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Budapest 76: Budapest leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Budapest 98: Budapest leads by 58 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Budapest.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on day trips and food and drink with your weighting.

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bologna in July

32 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaBudapest

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. Bologna: 1991-2020 normals, Bologna / Borgo Panigale (5.5 km from centre). Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaBudapest
Official languageItalianHungarian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Forint (HUF)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m117 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaBudapest
City population387,9711,675,777
People per km²2,7543,191
Museums within 10 km6881
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Budapest 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.