Cologne or Maastricht?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
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 more to do after dark and on days out: a much wider range of restaurants, many times more places to drink, and far more protected countryside within reach.
Choose Maastricht if you prefer a small city of 120,000 to one of about a million, with heritage close at hand and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cologne and Maastricht are level on 0.
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 40 | 6 |
| Coast distance | 256 km | 118 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Cologne leads by 24 points.24
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 48 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,142 | 338 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 22 |
Museums & heritage. Cologne leads by 7 points.7
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 53 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 13 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Cologne leads by 34 points.34
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 30 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,107 | 223 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 727 | 182 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 90 | 13 |
Nature & day trips. Cologne leads by 34 points.34
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 53 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 52 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 33 hectares |
Good for families. Cologne leads by 26 points.26
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 46 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 43 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 33 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 6 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Cologne leads by 17 points.17
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 36 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 81 | 32 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cologne leads by 2 points.2
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 58 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €181 |
Year-round weather. Cologne leads by 1 points.1
| Cologne | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.3 °C to 25 °C | 5.7 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 48 mm to 81 mm | 41 mm to 84 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Cologne is the stronger base for evenings out, with many times as many bars and clubs as Maastricht and three times as many restaurants near the centre, across a wider range of kitchens. It also suits families better, with about three times as many attractions and park space near the centre, 6 theme parks within reach against 5, and 53% of the surrounding land protected against 19%.
Maastricht's advantage is heritage reach: 5 UNESCO-listed places within a day trip against Cologne's 3, though Cologne holds about twice as many museums.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination: both are inland, and neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so any bathing is freshwater and short-season.
Otherwise they share a climate and a price bracket. Daytime highs run 6-25°C over the year in Cologne and 6-24°C in Maastricht, with rain spread through every month in both, and the national daily budgets behind them sit close together at €163 and €181.
Which traveller are you?
If you are travelling for food and evenings out, Cologne is the clear pick: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider spread of kitchens, and many times more bars and clubs, most within walking distance.
Families are better served in Cologne too, with roughly three times as many attractions and park space close to the centre, 6 theme parks within reach against 5, and far more protected countryside for days out.
If you want a quiet, walkable heritage break, Maastricht fits: a city of 120,000 with 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, though Cologne holds about twice as many museums if collections matter most.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures are national estimates, €163 for Cologne's country and €181 for Maastricht's, not measurements of either city. A large or heavily visited city can sit well away from its own national average, by more than the gap between these two, so the difference tells you nothing reliable about what either trip will cost.
The warmest months are also the wettest: Cologne's July and August carry 81mm each and Maastricht's August 84mm, so the peak of the season comes with rain. Beaches also mislead: neither city has sea within reach at swimming temperature, and Cologne's edge there is inland water, not a coast.
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). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).
Cologne is at its best from May to September, when highs run 20-25°C. July and August are the warmest at 25°C, but also the wettest, with 81mm in each; September still reaches 21°C on 67mm.
Maastricht trails by about 1°C most of the year, but is drier in spring and early autumn: April brings 41mm against Cologne's 48mm, and September 58mm. August is its wettest month at 84mm, so late summer is the weaker end of its season.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cologne | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 20 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 1 h 10 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 30 m €204-239 1 stop CGN · 15 km | 3 h 40 m no fares MST · 9 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 10 m no fares LGG · 29 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €145-156 CGN · 15 km | 3 h 10 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 0 m €77-159 CGN · 15 km | 2 h 0 m €148-192 1 stop EIN · 70 km |
| FaroFAO | 3 h 0 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 55 m €223 EIN · 70 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €81-121 CGN · 15 km | 1 h 30 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 55 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 5 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 45 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 4 h 55 m no fares BRU · 85 km |
| Fort-de-FranceFDF | 9 h 10 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 9 h 10 m no fares DUS · 90 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 | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | Dutch |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 911 |
| Elevation | 59 m | 49 m |
| Main airport | Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre113 non-stop destinations | Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cologne | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,024,621 | 120,227 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 2,000 |
| Museums within 10 km | 40 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 84 | 33 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Maastricht somewhere new.