VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Cologne or Paphos?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Paphos 45: Cologne leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Paphos 62: Cologne leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Paphos 38: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Paphos 64: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Paphos 68: Cologne leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Paphos 40: Cologne leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Paphos 25: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Paphos 22: Cologne leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Paphos 42: Cologne leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Paphos.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ColognePaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColognePaphos
Official languageGermanTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m72 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureColognePaphos
City population1,025,52335,961
People per km²2,5321,987
Museums within 10 km404
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Paphos 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.