VacationSelector
A heritage tram before the Regent building, Christchurch
ChristchurchA heritage tram before the Regent building
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Christchurch by Bernard Spragg. NZ, CC0; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Christchurch or Florence?

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 Christchurch for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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. Christchurch 38, Florence 14: Christchurch leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Christchurch 45, Florence 74: Florence leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Christchurch 38, Florence 94: Florence leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Christchurch 32, Florence 42: Florence leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Christchurch 84, Florence 58: Christchurch leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Christchurch 45, Florence 98: Florence leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Christchurch 66, Florence 45: Christchurch leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Christchurch 48, Florence 78: Florence leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Christchurch 32, Florence 72: Florence leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Christchurch 38, Florence 35: Christchurch leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Christchurch 38, Florence 58: Florence leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Christchurch 45, Florence 42: Christchurch leads by 3 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Christchurch and Florence.

Your match

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

Christchurch
46match

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

Florence
Best match
59match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Christchurch in July

11 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
68 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
10 °Csea
9 hdaylight a day

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChristchurchFlorence

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Christchurch: 1991-2020 normals, Christchurch (8.7 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChristchurchFlorence
Official languageEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, MāoriItalian
CurrencyNew Zealand Dollar (NZD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+12, UTC+13 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111112
Elevation20 m50 m
Main airportChristchurch International Airport (CHC)10 km from centre28 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChristchurchFlorence
City population383,200360,930
People per km²1,2983,528
Museums within 10 km11141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Christchurch or Florence 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.