Cologne or Stuttgart?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather 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 are travelling with children, or want the city itself to carry the trip: more attractions and parks near the centre, 6 theme parks within reach, and twice as many restaurants and bars as Stuttgart.
Choose Stuttgart if you want drier days and countryside day trips, with 3 months at 40mm of rain or less where Cologne has none.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cologne and Stuttgart are level on 0.
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 40 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 256 km | 476 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Cologne leads by 13 points.13
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,142 | 575 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Cologne leads by 4 points.4
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 21 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 32 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
Nightlife. Cologne leads by 15 points.15
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,107 | 524 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 727 | 374 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 90 | 53 |
Nature & day trips. Stuttgart leads by 9 points.9
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 80 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 53 | 51 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 52 | 31 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 78 hectares |
Good for families. Cologne leads by 27 points.27
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 45 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 43 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 78 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 6 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Cologne leads by 9 points.9
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 81 | 50 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Cologne and Stuttgart are level on 60.
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Stuttgart leads by 3 points.3
| Cologne | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.3 °C to 25 °C | 5.6 °C to 25.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 48 mm to 81 mm | 33 mm to 79 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Cologne is the stronger city for families and for evenings out: about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre, twice as much park space, and 6 theme parks within reach against 2. It also has twice as many restaurants, a wider range of kitchens, and twice as many bars and clubs.
Stuttgart has somewhat more museums and the better claim on countryside day trips. It is drier and sunnier, with 3 months at 40mm of rain or less where Cologne has none, and 1809 sunshine hours a year against 1589.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a swimming destination. Beach swimming is not really on offer in either, and neither has a month with water at 21°C or more, so both trips are built around the city and the country around it.
The weather profiles sit close together, both running daytime highs of about 6-25°C across the year, with January the coolest month in each. Heritage is close too: each has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Families with children: Cologne, with about three times as many tourist attractions near the centre, twice as much park space, and 6 theme parks within reach against Stuttgart's 2. Days can be filled without leaving the city.
Anyone whose trip revolves around eating and going out: Cologne again, with roughly twice as many restaurants and a wider spread of kitchens, plus twice as many bars and clubs, most of them near the centre.
Walkers and museum-goers planning day trips: Stuttgart, with somewhat more museums, roughly half the land around it protected, and 3 months at 40mm of rain or less for drier walking.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: the figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and it says nothing about which city costs less day to day. The €163 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Cologne or Stuttgart.
Beach counts mislead here too. Cologne's 40 nearby beaches suggest swimming, but neither city has a month with water reaching 21°C, and Cologne's strongest months are also its wettest at 81mm, so warm and dry are not the same month.
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). Stuttgart: 1991-2020 normals, Stuttgart / Neckartal (2.8 km from centre).
Cologne peaks in July and August, when highs reach 25°C, but those are also its wettest months at 81mm, so a summer visit should assume rain.
Stuttgart matches that summer, slightly warmer at 26°C, and pulls ahead outside it. April is 16°C with 37mm, and winter rain sits near 33-35mm against Cologne's 56-64mm, which makes Stuttgart the steadier choice for spring and off-season trips.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cologne | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €145-156 CGN · 15 km | 2 h 40 m €139-291 STR · 10 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 30 m €204-239 1 stop CGN · 15 km | 3 h 15 m €194-322 1 stop STR · 10 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 0 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 20 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 1 h 35 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 55 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €126-182 CGN · 15 km | 1 h 20 m €174-248 STR · 10 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 0 m €77-159 CGN · 15 km | 1 h 50 m €111-165 STR · 10 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 15 m €136-255 1 stop CGN · 15 km | 1 h 15 m €197-289 1 stop STR · 10 km |
| IzmirADB | 3 h 10 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 2 h 50 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 45 m no fares CGN · 15 km | 4 h 25 m no fares STR · 10 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 2026-09 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 | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | German |
| 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 |
| Elevation | 59 m | 245 m |
| Main airport | Cologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre113 non-stop destinations | Stuttgart Airport (STR)10 km from centre121 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cologne | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,024,621 | 633,484 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 3,054 |
| Museums within 10 km | 40 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 84 | 59 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Stuttgart somewhere new.