VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Burj Al Arab, Dubai
DubaiThe Burj Al Arab

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dubai by Aleksandar Pasaric, Pexels License.

Bologna or Dubai?

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
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Dubai for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Dubai’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, Dubai 80: Dubai leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Dubai 76: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Dubai 40: Bologna leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Dubai 62: Dubai leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Dubai 25: Bologna leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Dubai 45: Bologna leads by 50 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Dubai 42: Bologna leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Dubai 82: Dubai leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Dubai 32: Bologna leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Dubai 40: Bologna leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Dubai 46: Dubai leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Dubai.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

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

Dubai
54match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Dubai in July

42 °Cdaytime high
33 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
33 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaDubai

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). Dubai: 1991-2020 normals, Dubai International Airport (3.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaDubai
Official languageItalianArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)UAE Dirham (AED)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+4
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m0 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsDubai International Airport (DXB)7 km from centre294 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaDubai
City population387,9713,944,751
People per km²2,754-
Museums within 10 km6814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Dubai 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. 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.