VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne or Miami Beach?

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

  • prices
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Miami Beach for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami Beach’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, Miami Beach 92: Miami Beach leads by 78 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Miami Beach 62: Miami Beach leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Miami Beach 52: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Miami Beach 80: Miami Beach leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Miami Beach 52: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Miami Beach 55: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Miami Beach 60: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Miami Beach 58: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Miami Beach 55: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Miami Beach 20: Cologne leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Miami Beach 55: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Miami Beach 48: Cologne leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Miami Beach.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cologne
58match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Miami Beach
57match

Wins on beaches and nightlife 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

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
CologneMiami Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneMiami Beach
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation59 m1 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneMiami Beach
City population1,025,52382,890
People per km²2,5322,109
Museums within 10 km4014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Miami Beach 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.