VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Bologna or Hamburg?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Hamburg for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Hamburg’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, Hamburg 28: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Hamburg 55: Bologna leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna 77, Hamburg 62: Bologna leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Hamburg 76: Hamburg leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna and Hamburg are level on 52.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Hamburg 70: Bologna leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Hamburg 74: Hamburg leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Hamburg 80: Hamburg leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Hamburg 65: Hamburg leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Hamburg 38: Bologna leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Hamburg 80: Hamburg leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Hamburg 44: Hamburg leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bologna and Hamburg.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Bologna
60match

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

Hamburg
60match

Wins on families and live music and the arts 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

Hamburg in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaHamburg

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

Before you go

MeasureBolognaHamburg
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 m6 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days10 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaHamburg
City population387,9711,869,473
People per km²2,7542,476
Museums within 10 km6877
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 Hamburg 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.