VacationSelector
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College

Photos: Bruges by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Bruges 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 Bruges for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Dublin for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • 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. Bruges 28, Dublin 27: Bruges leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Bruges 56, Dublin 50: Bruges leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Bruges 75, Dublin 64: Bruges leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Bruges 27, Dublin 62: Dublin leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bruges 40, Dublin 70: Dublin leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Bruges 85, Dublin 72: Bruges leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Bruges 54, Dublin 57: Dublin leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Bruges 78, Dublin 66: Bruges leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bruges 45, Dublin 54: Dublin leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Bruges 36, Dublin 20: Bruges leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bruges 40, Dublin 65: Dublin leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bruges 40, Dublin 25: Bruges leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bruges and Dublin.

Your match

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

Bruges
50match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Dublin
Best match
53match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BrugesDublin

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre). Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrugesDublin
Official languageFrench, German, DutchEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation2 m20 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrugesDublin
City population118,509592,713
People per km²8405,154
Museums within 10 km3840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bruges 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.