VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The harbour front with the church tower above the houses, Saint-Tropez
Saint-TropezThe harbour front with the church tower above the houses

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Saint-Tropez by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Cologne or Saint-Tropez?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Saint-Tropez for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Saint-Tropez’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, Saint-Tropez 82: Saint-Tropez leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Saint-Tropez 48: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Saint-Tropez 35: Cologne leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Saint-Tropez 60: Cologne leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Saint-Tropez 72: Saint-Tropez leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Saint-Tropez 57: Cologne leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Saint-Tropez 42: Cologne leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Saint-Tropez 32: Cologne leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Saint-Tropez 64: Saint-Tropez leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Saint-Tropez 8: Cologne leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Saint-Tropez 18: Cologne leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Saint-Tropez 35: Cologne leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Saint-Tropez.

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.

Saint-Tropez
46match

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

Saint-Tropez in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
10 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
CologneSaint-Tropez

Where the figures come from

Saint-Tropez 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.

Saint-Tropez's sunshine is measured 62 km from the centre, at Nice.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Saint-Tropez: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Le Luc (24.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneSaint-Tropez
Official languageGermanFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m0 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)64 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneSaint-Tropez
City population1,025,5233,582
People per km²2,532320
Museums within 10 km404
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 Saint-Tropez 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.