VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The SkyWheel by the beach, Myrtle Beach
Myrtle BeachThe SkyWheel by the beach

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Myrtle Beach by The ed17, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne or Myrtle 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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Myrtle Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Myrtle 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, Myrtle Beach 84: Myrtle Beach leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Myrtle Beach 38: Cologne leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Myrtle Beach 20: Cologne leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Myrtle Beach 42: Cologne leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Myrtle Beach 46: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Myrtle Beach 50: Cologne leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Myrtle Beach 80: Myrtle Beach leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Myrtle Beach 18: Cologne leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Myrtle Beach 38: Cologne leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Myrtle Beach 52: Myrtle Beach leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Myrtle Beach 30: Cologne leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Myrtle Beach 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 Myrtle Beach.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Myrtle Beach
44match

Wins on beaches and families 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

Myrtle Beach in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
172 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CologneMyrtle Beach

Where the figures come from

Myrtle Beach 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). Myrtle Beach: 1971-2000 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base (5.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneMyrtle 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 m8 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsMyrtle Beach International Airport (MYR)5 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneMyrtle Beach
City population1,025,52335,682
People per km²2,532591
Museums within 10 km402
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Myrtle 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.