VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Cologne or Nashville?

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
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Nashville for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’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 and Nashville are level on 14.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Nashville 62: Nashville leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Nashville 50: Cologne leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Nashville 70: Nashville leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Nashville 46: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Nashville 52: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Nashville 55: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Nashville 30: Cologne leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Nashville 42: Cologne leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Nashville 30: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Nashville 82: Nashville leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Nashville 20: Cologne leads by 30 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Nashville.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on live music and the arts 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
16 hdaylight a day

Nashville in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
CologneNashville

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneNashville
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation59 m182 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneNashville
City population1,025,523689,447
People per km²2,532506
Museums within 10 km4012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Nashville 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.