VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne 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 Cologne for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Cologne’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. Cologne 14, Galway 28: Galway leads by 14 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Galway 45: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Galway 33: Cologne leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Galway 50: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Galway 78: Galway leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Galway 56: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Galway 42: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Galway 58: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Galway 38: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Galway 28: Cologne leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Galway 57: Cologne leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Galway 28: Cologne leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Galway.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights and families 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.

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

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
CologneGalway

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. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneGalway
Official languageGermanEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m25 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneGalway
City population1,025,52383,456
People per km²2,5321,563
Museums within 10 km404
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Cologne 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.