VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
Haedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea, Busan
BusanHaedong Yonggungsa temple on the rocks by the sea

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Busan by Andrea De Santis, Pexels License.

Bologna or Busan?

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

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Busan for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Busan’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, Busan 68: Busan leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Busan 72: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Busan 52: Bologna leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Busan 60: Busan leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Busan 74: Busan leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Busan 74: Bologna leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Busan 70: Busan leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Busan 68: Bologna leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Busan 60: Busan leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Busan 56: Busan leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Busan 42: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Busan 78: Busan leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Busan.

Your match

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

Bologna
60match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Busan
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Busan in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
352 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaBusan

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). Busan: 1991-2020 normals, Pusan (9.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaBusan
Official languageItalianKorean, Korean Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Won (KRW)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 119, fire 119
Elevation54 m30 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsGimhae International Airport (PUS)12 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days18 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaBusan
City population387,9713,453,198
People per km²2,7544,486
Museums within 10 km687
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Busan 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.