VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The Three Graces at Pier Head, Liverpool
LiverpoolThe Three Graces at Pier Head

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Liverpool by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cologne or Liverpool?

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

  • wellness
  • day trips
  • families

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

Choose Liverpool for

  • beaches
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Liverpool’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, Liverpool 22: Liverpool leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Liverpool 48: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Liverpool 64: Cologne leads by 3 points.
Nightlife. Cologne and Liverpool are level on 66.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Liverpool 52: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Liverpool 64: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Liverpool 55: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Liverpool 68: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Liverpool 52: Cologne leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Liverpool 50: Liverpool leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Liverpool 66: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Liverpool 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 Liverpool.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Liverpool
52match

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

Liverpool in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
67 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneLiverpool

Where the figures come from

Liverpool's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Manchester Airport.

Liverpool 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). Liverpool: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (47.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneLiverpool
Official languageGermanEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation59 m70 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsLiverpool John Lennon Airport (LPL)12 km from centre75 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneLiverpool
City population1,025,523513,441
People per km²2,5324,592
Museums within 10 km4031
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Liverpool 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.