VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Cologne or Hiroshima?

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
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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, Hiroshima 30: Hiroshima leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Hiroshima 66: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Hiroshima 60: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Hiroshima 45: Cologne leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cologne and Hiroshima are level on 80.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Hiroshima 60: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cologne and Hiroshima are level on 74.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Hiroshima 52: Cologne leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Hiroshima 38: Cologne leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne and Hiroshima are level on 50.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Cologne
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Hiroshima
56match

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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CologneHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneHiroshima
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 m3 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneHiroshima
City population1,025,5231,198,021
People per km²2,5321,324
Museums within 10 km4018
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 Hiroshima 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.