VacationSelector
The Three Graces fountain, Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux
BordeauxThe Three Graces fountain, Place de la Bourse
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Bordeaux by Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bordeaux or Milan?

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 Bordeaux for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Milan for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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. Bordeaux 50, Milan 20: Bordeaux leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Bordeaux and Milan are level on 78.
Culture & sights. Bordeaux 68, Milan 78: Milan leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Bordeaux 50, Milan 66: Milan leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bordeaux 58, Milan 65: Milan leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Bordeaux 78, Milan 91: Milan leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Bordeaux 57, Milan 55: Bordeaux leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Bordeaux 76, Milan 79: Milan leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Bordeaux 56, Milan 92: Milan leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Bordeaux 42, Milan 33: Bordeaux leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bordeaux 55, Milan 82: Milan leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bordeaux 40, Milan 42: Milan leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bordeaux and Milan.

Your match

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

Bordeaux
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping 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.

Bordeaux in July

27 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
47 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BordeauxMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bordeaux: 1991-2020 normals, Bordeaux / Merignac (9.5 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBordeauxMilan
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation1 m138 m
Main airportBordeaux–Mérignac Airport (BOD)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBordeauxMilan
City population267,9911,354,196
People per km²5,4257,453
Museums within 10 km1888
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44

Where else could you go?

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