VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Dublin?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Dublin for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Dublin’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, Dublin 27: Bologna leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Dublin 50: Bologna leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Dublin 64: Bologna leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Dublin 62: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Dublin 70: Dublin leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Dublin 72: Bologna leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Dublin 57: Dublin leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Dublin 66: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Dublin 54: Bologna leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Dublin 20: Bologna leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Dublin 65: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Dublin 25: Bologna leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Dublin.

Your match

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

Bologna
Best match
60match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Dublin
53match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaDublin

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). Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaDublin
Official languageItalianEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m20 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaDublin
City population387,971592,713
People per km²2,7545,154
Museums within 10 km6840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bologna or Dublin 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.