VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cologne or Havana?

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

  • day trips
  • families
  • getting around

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

Choose Havana for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Havana’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, Havana 64: Havana leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Havana 40: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Havana 77: Havana leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Havana 60: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Havana 34: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Havana 38: Cologne leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Havana 34: Cologne leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Havana 38: Cologne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Havana 30: Cologne leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Havana 58: Havana leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Havana 74: Havana leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Havana 22: Cologne leads by 28 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Havana.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on day trips and families with your weighting.

Havana
47match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CologneHavana

Where the figures come from

Havana 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). Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneHavana
Official languageGermanSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Cuban Peso (CUP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB110 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112Police 106, ambulance 104, fire 105
Elevation59 m59 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days9 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneHavana
City population1,025,5232,492,618
People per km²2,5323,423
Museums within 10 km4012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Havana 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.