VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne or Fukuoka?

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 Cologne for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Fukuoka for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Fukuoka’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. Cologne 14, Fukuoka 50: Fukuoka leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Fukuoka 50: Cologne leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Fukuoka 60: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Fukuoka 62: Fukuoka leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Fukuoka 84: Fukuoka leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Fukuoka 78: Fukuoka leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Fukuoka 65: Fukuoka leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Fukuoka 58: Fukuoka leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Fukuoka 45: Cologne leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Fukuoka.

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cologne in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
81 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
CologneFukuoka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneFukuoka
Official languageGermanJapanese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Yen (JPY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number112Police 110, fire 119
Elevation59 m8 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneFukuoka
City population1,025,5231,603,043
People per km²2,5324,715
Museums within 10 km4023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Fukuoka 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.