Cologne or Rotterdam?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cologne if you want green space and countryside on the doorstep, a lot of choice for a night out, and the warmer summer of the two, with highs of 25°C.
Choose Rotterdam if the sea matters: it is the one with swimming within reach, up to 19°C at its August warmest, and it has slightly more theme parks in range for children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Rotterdam leads by 37 points.37
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 37 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 40 | 22 |
| Coast distance | 256 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | — | 24 km |
Places to eat. Cologne and Rotterdam are level on 72.
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 72 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,142 | 862 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 46 |
Museums & heritage. Cologne and Rotterdam are level on 60.
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 41 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 20 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
Nightlife. Cologne leads by 15 points.15
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,107 | 542 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 727 | 378 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 90 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. Cologne leads by 29 points.29
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 53 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 52 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 79 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 61 hectares |
Good for families. Cologne leads by 10 points.10
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 62 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 43 | 27 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 61 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 6 | 8 |
Sights concentration. Cologne leads by 2 points.2
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 81 | 74 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cologne leads by 2 points.2
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 58 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €181 |
Year-round weather. Cologne leads by 4 points.4
| Cologne | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.3 °C to 25 °C | 6.2 °C to 22.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 48 mm to 81 mm | 42 mm to 85 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Cologne is the better base for getting out of town: 53% of the surrounding land is protected against 10% around Rotterdam, and there is roughly twice as much park space near the centre. It also has about twice as many bars and twice as many clubs, most of them central, and about twice as many attractions near the centre for families.
Rotterdam is the one with sea swimming within reach, warmest at 19°C in August, and has 8 theme parks in range against Cologne's 6.
Where they are alike
Eating out is where they are level: Cologne has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, Rotterdam a somewhat wider range of kitchens.
Museum numbers are much alike, though Rotterdam has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Cologne's 3. Both keep a comparable number of notable places within walking distance of the centre, so both work on foot, and both follow the same cool, damp northern pattern, down to January highs of 6°C.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and day-trippers: Cologne. The protected land around it is on a different scale from Rotterdam's, and there is roughly twice as much park space near the centre, so days out of town come easily.
Anyone out late: Cologne again, with about twice as many bars and about twice as many clubs, most of them close enough to the centre to move between on foot.
Families: it depends. Rotterdam has more theme parks in range and the only sea swimming, at 19°C in August. Cologne answers with about twice as many attractions near the centre and more park space for unplanned afternoons.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figure is a national estimate of restaurant and hotel prices, not a measurement of either city. Cities sit well away from their own country average, often by more than the gap between these two figures, so it tells you nothing reliable about which trip will cost you more.
The sea beside Rotterdam peaks at 19°C, and neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so swimming is bracing rather than idle. The warmest months are also the wettest, above 80mm in both, so a good month here is not a dry one.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).
Cologne's stronger stretch runs May to September, with highs of 20-25°C. April is the driest month at 48mm, and the warmest weeks are also the wettest, near 81mm in high summer, so late spring suits a trip built around parks and days out of town.
Rotterdam peaks in July and August at 22°C, when the sea reaches 18-19°C. Autumn and winter stay wet, 78-84mm a month, damper than Cologne through the dark half of the year, so plan the coast for late summer rather than the shoulder season.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cologne | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 30 m €204-239 1 stop CGN · 15 km | 3 h 45 m no fares RTM · 5 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 20 m no fares RTM · 5 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €145-156 CGN · 15 km | 3 h 15 m €140-185 RTM · 5 km |
| DublinDUB | 1 h 50 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 1 h 35 m €69-96 AMS · 47 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 1 h 30 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 1 h 15 m €145-187 AMS · 47 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 20 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 47 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 25 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 1 h 25 m €171-212 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 1 h 10 m €178-300 AMS · 47 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 35 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| CuracaoCUR | 10 h 0 m no fares DUS · 41 km | 9 h 55 m no fares AMS · 47 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cologne | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | Dutch |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 911 |
| Elevation | 59 m | 10 m |
| Main airport | Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre113 non-stop destinations | Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre45 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cologne | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,024,621 | 664,311 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 2,080 |
| Museums within 10 km | 40 | 40 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 84 | 77 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Rotterdam somewhere new.