VacationSelector
The cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine, Cologne
CologneThe cathedral and Great St. Martin on the Rhine
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Cologne by Jörg Braukmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cologne or West Palm Beach?

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

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Cologne and West Palm Beach are level on 52.
Culture & sights. Cologne 67, West Palm Beach 42: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Nightlife. Cologne 66, West Palm Beach 36: Cologne leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cologne 56, West Palm Beach 58: West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cologne 80, West Palm Beach 55: Cologne leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Cologne 70, West Palm Beach 66: Cologne leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cologne 74, West Palm Beach 38: Cologne leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Cologne 57, West Palm Beach 64: West Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Cologne 46, West Palm Beach 23: Cologne leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cologne 68, West Palm Beach 47: Cologne leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cologne 50, West Palm Beach 44: Cologne leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cologne and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Cologne
Best match
58match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on beaches and shopping 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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CologneWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cologne: 1991-2020 normals, Köln-Stammheim (5.4 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCologneWest Palm Beach
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation59 m6 m
Main airportCologne Bonn Airport (CGN)15 km from centre115 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCologneWest Palm Beach
City population1,025,523117,415
People per km²2,532786
Museums within 10 km404
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cologne or West Palm Beach 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.