Cologne or London?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and value for money with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cologne if you want green space and days out: 53% of the land around it is protected, and there are 6 theme parks within reach, more than London.
Choose London if you want the walking city: many times more notable places within reach of the centre, about three times as many restaurants near the middle, and a far larger drinking and clubbing scene.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cologne and London are level on 0.
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 40 | 47 |
| Coast distance | 256 km | 43 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 16 points.16
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 88 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,142 | 3,317 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 12 points.12
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 148 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 49 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 33 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 4 |
Nightlife. London leads by 31 points.31
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 95 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,107 | 5,327 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 727 | 2,443 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 46 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 90 | 312 |
Nature & day trips. Cologne leads by 31 points.31
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 53 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 52 | 14 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 97 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 84 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 3 points.3
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 43 | 85 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 84 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 6 | 3 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 36 points.36
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 89 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 81 | 649 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cologne leads by 6 points.6
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 54 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 84.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | — |
Year-round weather. London leads by 3 points.3
| Cologne | London | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.3 °C to 25 °C | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 48 mm to 81 mm | 38 mm to 67 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Cologne is the better base for getting out of the city: 53% of the land around it is protected against 16% around London, and there is somewhat more park space near the centre. It also has 6 theme parks within reach against London's 3, and its museums sit tightly around the centre.
London wins inside the centre: many times more notable places within walking distance, about three times as many restaurants and about three times as many museums, plus far more places to drink.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a place to swim. Both have beaches within reach, 47 near London and 40 near Cologne, but neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, so the coast is a day out rather than a holiday in itself.
Their years also run alike: summer highs of 25°C in Cologne and 24°C in London, cold Januarys, and near-identical annual sunshine. Both suit families, with attractions, parks and theme parks in each.
Which traveller are you?
Museum-first travellers should take London. It has roughly three times as many museums as Cologne and many times more notable places within walking distance, so a weekend can be done largely on foot.
Families are better served in Cologne. It has 6 theme parks within reach against London's 3 and more park space near the centre, though London counts about twice as many attractions in the middle.
Night-out travellers should choose London, with many more places to drink and about three times as many nightclubs. Cologne's advantage is compactness: most of its nightlife sits near the centre, against roughly half of London's.
What the numbers don't tell you
There is no price comparison to be had here. The data gives a daily budget for Cologne, about €163, but carries none for London, so nothing in these figures tells you which trip costs more. The value ranking rests on a different measure that both cities share.
Beach counts also mislead. Both have beaches listed nearby, yet neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, so these are not swimming trips. And Cologne's best months for warmth, June to August, are also its wettest, at up to 81mm, so the summer peak carries more rain than the temperature suggests.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre).
Cologne is at its best in summer: highs of 23-25°C from June to August, but those are also its wettest months, around 76-81mm. May is drier, at 60mm, and still reaches 20°C.
London is the steadier pick outside high summer: spring rain of 38-46mm against Cologne's higher totals, and milder winter days at 8-9°C rather than 6-7°C. Its own peak, July, is a touch cooler and drier than Cologne's. Both flatten out in late autumn and early winter.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cologne | London |
|---|---|---|
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 30 m €204-239 1 stop CGN · 15 km | 4 h 5 m €144-189 LGW · 40 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 10 m €79-116 LGW · 40 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €145-156 CGN · 15 km | 3 h 35 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 0 m €77-159 CGN · 15 km | 2 h 0 m €61-144 LGW · 40 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 1 h 45 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| MalagaAGP | 2 h 50 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 35 m €119-292 1 stop LGW · 40 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €81-121 CGN · 15 km | 1 h 45 m €83-138 LGW · 40 km |
| AlicanteALC | 2 h 30 m €112-124 CGN · 15 km | 2 h 20 m €66-100 LGW · 40 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €126-182 CGN · 15 km | 2 h 10 m no fares LHR · 23 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 45 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 5 h 15 m no fares LGW · 40 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cologne | London |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | English |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Pound Sterling (GBP) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 999 |
| Elevation | 59 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre113 non-stop destinations | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 8 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cologne | London |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,024,621 | 8,799,728 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 5,598 |
| Museums within 10 km | 40 | 215 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 84 | 116 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or London somewhere new.