VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The colonnaded court of Luxor Temple, Luxor
LuxorThe colonnaded court of Luxor Temple

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Luxor by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cologne or Luxor?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Luxor for

  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Luxor’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, Luxor 6: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Luxor 30: Cologne leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Luxor 95: Luxor leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Luxor 10: Cologne leads by 56 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Luxor 32: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Luxor 62: Cologne leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Luxor 30: Cologne leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Luxor 35: Cologne leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Luxor 25: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Luxor 90: Luxor leads by 44 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Luxor 10: Cologne leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Luxor 28: Cologne leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Luxor.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

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

Luxor
38match

Wins on prices 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
16 hdaylight a day

Luxor in July

41 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneLuxor

Where the figures come from

Luxor 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). Luxor: 1998-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Luxor (6.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneLuxor
Official languageGermanArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Egyptian Pound (EGP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112Police 122, ambulance 123, fire 180
Elevation59 m89 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsLuxor International Airport (LXR)7 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneLuxor
City population1,025,523202,232
People per km²2,532486
Museums within 10 km404
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Luxor 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.