VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Cologne or Valencia?

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
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Cologne 52, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Cologne and Valencia are level on 66.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, Valencia 60: Valencia leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, Valencia 70: Cologne leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne and Valencia are level on 57.
Affordability. Cologne 46, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, Valencia 55: Cologne leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, Valencia 42: Cologne leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Cologne
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and day trips with your weighting.

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and food and drink 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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
CologneValencia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneValencia
Official languageGermanSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation59 m15 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneValencia
City population1,025,523840,792
People per km²2,5326,242
Museums within 10 km4045
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or Valencia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.