VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The arch at the entrance to the boardwalk, Ocean City, Maryland
Ocean City, MarylandThe arch at the entrance to the boardwalk

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ocean City, Maryland by Dough4872, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cologne or Ocean City, Maryland?

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

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

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

Choose Ocean City, Maryland for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Ocean City, Maryland’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, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Ocean City, Maryland 14: Cologne leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Ocean City, Maryland 45: Cologne leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Ocean City, Maryland 50: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Ocean City, Maryland 42: Cologne leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Ocean City, Maryland 78: Ocean City, Maryland leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Ocean City, Maryland 34: Cologne leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Ocean City, Maryland 24: Cologne leads by 33 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Ocean City, Maryland 40: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Ocean City, Maryland 18: Cologne leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Ocean City, Maryland 22: Cologne leads by 28 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Ocean City, Maryland.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Ocean City, Maryland
40match

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

Ocean City, Maryland in July

29 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
96 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
CologneOcean City, Maryland

Where the figures come from

Ocean City, Maryland 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). Ocean City, Maryland: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Ocean City / Morris Mobile Home Park (10.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneOcean City, Maryland
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 m2 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsSalisbury Ocean City Wicomico Regional Airport (SBY)39 km from centre4 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneOcean City, Maryland
City population1,025,5236,844
People per km²2,53273
Museums within 10 km400
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

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