VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Cologne?

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

  • food and drink
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Cologne for

  • families
  • wellness
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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, Cologne 14: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Cologne 52: Bologna leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Cologne 67: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Cologne 66: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Cologne 56: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Cologne 80: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Cologne 70: Cologne leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Cologne 74: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Cologne 57: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Cologne 46: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Cologne 68: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Cologne 50: Cologne leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Cologne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bologna
60match

Wins on food and drink and beaches with your weighting.

Cologne
58match

Wins on families 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
15 hdaylight a day

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaCologne

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). Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaCologne
Official languageItalianGerman
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m59 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaCologne
City population387,9711,025,523
People per km²2,7542,532
Museums within 10 km6840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Cologne 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.