VacationSelector
The Cathedral of Sant'Agata, Catania
CataniaThe Cathedral of Sant'Agata
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Catania by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Catania or Ghent?

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 Catania for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Ghent for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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. Catania 72, Ghent 25: Catania leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Catania 77, Ghent 62: Catania leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Catania 62, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Catania 60, Ghent 55: Catania leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Catania 83, Ghent 35: Catania leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Catania 84, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Catania and Ghent are level on 50.
Getting around. Catania 48, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Catania 42, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Catania 60, Ghent 38: Catania leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Catania 55, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Catania 30, Ghent 33: Ghent leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Catania and Ghent.

Your match

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

Catania
Best match
60match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Catania in July

31 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CataniaGhent

Where the figures come from

Catania's sunshine is measured 88 km from the centre, at Messina.

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Catania: 1991-2020 normals, Catania / Fontanarossa (5.2 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCataniaGhent
Official languageItalianFrench, German, Dutch
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
Elevation7 m12 m
Main airportCatania-Fontanarossa Airport (CTA)4 km from centre96 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCataniaGhent
City population311,584272,657
People per km²1,7041,728
Museums within 10 km2530
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Catania or Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.