VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cannes or Galle?

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 Cannes for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Galle for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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. Cannes and Galle are level on 80.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Galle 50: Cannes leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Galle 55: Galle leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Galle 18: Cannes leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Galle 66: Cannes leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Galle 50: Cannes leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Galle 42: Cannes leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Galle 35: Cannes leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Galle 33: Cannes leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Galle 72: Galle leads by 50 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Galle 10: Cannes leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Galle 70: Galle leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Galle.

Your match

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

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

Galle
48match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CannesGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureCannesGalle
Official languageFrenchTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation0 m0 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCannesGalle
City population74,35093,118
People per km²3,793-
Museums within 10 km162
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.