VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Huntington Beach Pier on a summer day, Huntington Beach
Huntington BeachHuntington Beach Pier on a summer day

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Huntington Beach by Stephen Leonardi, Pexels License.

Cologne or Huntington Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Huntington Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Huntington Beach’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, Huntington Beach 70: Huntington Beach leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Huntington Beach 46: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Huntington Beach 14: Cologne leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Huntington Beach 38: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Huntington Beach 58: Huntington Beach leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Huntington Beach 63: Cologne leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Huntington Beach 82: Huntington Beach leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Huntington Beach 20: Cologne leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Huntington Beach 42: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Huntington Beach 28: Cologne leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Huntington Beach 33: Cologne leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Huntington Beach 36: Cologne leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Huntington Beach.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Huntington Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Huntington Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneHuntington Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Huntington Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneHuntington Beach
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation59 m12 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)12 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneHuntington Beach
City population1,025,523198,711
People per km²2,5322,406
Museums within 10 km403
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 Huntington Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.