VacationSelector
The Atomium, Brussels
BrusselsThe Atomium
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Brussels by Ettanghe, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Brussels or Galway?

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 Brussels for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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

Choose Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Brussels 18, Galway 28: Galway leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Brussels 72, Galway 45: Brussels leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Brussels 74, Galway 33: Brussels leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Brussels 60, Galway 50: Brussels leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Brussels 45, Galway 78: Galway leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Brussels 89, Galway 56: Brussels leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Brussels 60, Galway 42: Brussels leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Brussels 72, Galway 58: Brussels leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Brussels 62, Galway 38: Brussels leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Brussels 40, Galway 28: Brussels leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Brussels 68, Galway 57: Brussels leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Brussels 33, Galway 28: Brussels leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Brussels and Galway.

Your match

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

Brussels
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Galway
45match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Brussels in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
80 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BrusselsGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Brussels: 1991-2020 normals, Uccle (5.2 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBrusselsGalway
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
Elevation70 m25 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)11 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBrusselsGalway
City population195,54683,456
People per km²5,9081,563
Museums within 10 km1064
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km100
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

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