VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Cloth Hall on the Main Square, Krakow
KrakowThe Cloth Hall on the Main Square

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Krakow by Jakub Hałun, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Bologna or Krakow?

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 Krakow for

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Krakow’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, Krakow 9: Bologna leads by 21 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Krakow 55: Bologna leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna and Krakow are level on 77.
Nightlife. Bologna 58, Krakow 68: Krakow leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Krakow 62: Krakow leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Krakow 76: Bologna leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Krakow 58: Krakow leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Krakow 74: Bologna leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Krakow 48: Bologna leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Krakow 72: Krakow leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Krakow 55: Bologna leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna 40, Krakow 36: Bologna leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Krakow
58match

Wins on prices and nightlife 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

Krakow in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
100 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaKrakow

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). Krakow: 1991-2020 normals, Krakow (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaKrakow
Official languageItalianPolish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m219 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsKraków John Paul II International Airport (KRK)11 km from centre132 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaKrakow
City population387,971804,237
People per km²2,7542,459
Museums within 10 km68113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34

Where else could you go?

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