VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The harbour seen from above, Marmaris
MarmarisThe harbour seen from above

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Marmaris by Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cologne or Marmaris?

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
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose Marmaris for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Marmaris’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, Marmaris 80: Marmaris leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Marmaris 40: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Marmaris 18: Cologne leads by 49 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Marmaris 60: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Marmaris 72: Marmaris leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Marmaris 65: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Marmaris 62: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Marmaris 55: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Marmaris 38: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Marmaris 62: Marmaris leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Marmaris 12: Cologne leads by 56 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne and Marmaris are level on 50.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Marmaris.

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

Marmaris
51match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Marmaris in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
8 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CologneMarmaris

Where the figures come from

Marmaris's temperatures are measured 49 km from the centre, at Dalaman.

Marmaris 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). Marmaris: 2000-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Dalaman (48.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneMarmaris
Official languageGermanTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m7 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsDalaman International Airport (DLM)49 km from centre61 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneMarmaris
City population1,025,52397,818
People per km²2,532111
Museums within 10 km401
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Marmaris 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.