VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cologne or Los Angeles?

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
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Los Angeles 66: Cologne leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Los Angeles 67: Los Angeles leads by 1 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Los Angeles 60: Cologne leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Los Angeles 25: Cologne leads by 49 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Los Angeles 24: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

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

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneLos Angeles

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneLos Angeles
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 m106 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneLos Angeles
City population1,025,5233,898,747
People per km²2,5322,994
Museums within 10 km4039
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
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 Los Angeles 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.