VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Castel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino, Naples
NaplesCastel Sant'Elmo and the Certosa di San Martino

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Naples by pietro scerrato, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Cologne or Naples?

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

  • families
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Naples for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Naples’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, Naples 50: Naples leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Naples 83: Naples leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Naples 87: Naples leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Naples 60: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Naples 77: Naples leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Naples 96: Naples leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Naples 45: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Naples 54: Cologne leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Naples 60: Naples leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Naples 63: Naples leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Naples 66: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Naples 44: Cologne leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Naples.

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on families and getting around with your weighting.

Naples
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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

Naples in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CologneNaples

Where the figures come from

Naples 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.

Naples's sunshine is measured 28 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Naples: 2005-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Napoli / Capodichino (4.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneNaples
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m17 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)7 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneNaples
City population1,025,523913,462
People per km²2,5327,676
Museums within 10 km4065
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

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