VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cologne or Stockholm?

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
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, Stockholm 57: Cologne leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Stockholm 68: Cologne leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Stockholm 30: Cologne leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Stockholm 65: Cologne leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneStockholm
Official languageGermanSwedish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m22 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneStockholm
City population1,025,523984,748
People per km²2,5325,260
Museums within 10 km40266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
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 Stockholm 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.