VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Cologne or San Francisco?

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

  • prices
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • food and drink
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, San Francisco 58: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, San Francisco 72: Cologne leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, San Francisco 66: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, San Francisco 70: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, San Francisco 14: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, San Francisco 42: Cologne leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cologne
58match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on food and drink 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

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
CologneSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneSan Francisco
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation59 m16 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneSan Francisco
City population1,025,523873,965
People per km²2,5321,455
Museums within 10 km4051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 San Francisco 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.