VacationSelector
San Petronio on Piazza Maggiore, Bologna
BolognaSan Petronio on Piazza Maggiore
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Bologna by Vanni Lazzari, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Bologna or Lyon?

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

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Lyon for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’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, Lyon 12: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Bologna 82, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Bologna and Lyon are level on 77.
Nightlife. Bologna and Lyon are level on 58.
Nature & outdoors. Bologna 52, Lyon 64: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Bologna 95, Lyon 77: Bologna leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Bologna 50, Lyon 62: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Bologna 76, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Bologna 55, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bologna 48, Lyon 42: Bologna leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bologna 60, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bologna and Lyon are level on 40.
0255075100

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

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 beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Lyon
60match

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
15 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BolognaLyon

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). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBolognaLyon
Official languageItalianFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation54 m160 m
Main airportBologna Guglielmo Marconi Airport (BLQ)6 km from centre98 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBolognaLyon
City population387,971519,127
People per km²2,75410,838
Museums within 10 km6843
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32

Where else could you go?

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