VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The golden Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem
JerusalemThe golden Dome of the Rock

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Jerusalem by Yasir Gürbüz, Pexels License.

Cologne or Jerusalem?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • prices

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

Choose Jerusalem for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Jerusalem’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, Jerusalem 40: Jerusalem leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Jerusalem 66: Jerusalem leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Jerusalem 92: Jerusalem leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Jerusalem 38: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Jerusalem 60: Jerusalem leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cologne and Jerusalem are level on 80.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Jerusalem 52: Cologne leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Jerusalem 55: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Jerusalem 48: Cologne leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Jerusalem 20: Cologne leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Jerusalem 40: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Jerusalem 42: Cologne leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

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

Jerusalem
53match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights 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

Jerusalem in July

30 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
CologneJerusalem

Where the figures come from

Jerusalem 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). Jerusalem: 1991-2020 normals, Jerusalem (1.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneJerusalem
Official languageGermanHebrew
CurrencyEuro (EUR)New Israeli Sheqel (ILS)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCHM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 100, fire 102
Elevation59 m754 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsBen Gurion International Airport (TLV)42 km from centre111 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureCologneJerusalem
City population1,025,5231,050,151
People per km²2,5328,374
Museums within 10 km4069
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km37
Swim season, months above 21 °C-7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Jerusalem 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.