VacationSelector

Como or Venice?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Como
34
match

Wins on nature & day trips with your weighting.

Venice
✓ Best match
57
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration 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 Como if the point of the trip is what lies outside town: protected land around the lake, more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach than Venice has, and a base of roughly 83,000 people.

Choose Venice if you want the trip on foot: museums, restaurants and visitor attractions packed close to the centre, 20 beaches nearby, and sea warm enough for swimming through the summer.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

ComoVenice
Beaches & swimming. Venice leads by 69 points.69
ComoVenice
Score069
Swim season months04
Beaches 10 km820
Coast distance156 km4 km
Water distance—4 km
Places to eat. Venice leads by 20 points.20
ComoVenice
Score2545
Restaurants within 2 km of centre259750
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km710
Museums & heritage. Venice leads by 26 points.26
ComoVenice
Score4672
Museums within 10 km957
Museums within 2 km of centre645
Share of museums within 2 km %6779
Unesco sites within 50 km85
Nightlife. Venice leads by 11 points.11
ComoVenice
Score2435
Drinking venues within 4 km213342
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre143306
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %6789
Nightclubs within 4 km13
Nature & day trips. Como leads by 23 points.23
ComoVenice
Score4017
Protected land share 50 km %234
Landscape blanket share 50 km %50
Land share of disc %10070
Park area within 2 km15 hectares15 hectares
Good for families. Venice leads by 42 points.42
ComoVenice
Score1557
Tourist attractions within 2 km672
Park area within 2 km15 hectares15 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km03
Sights concentration. Venice leads by 53 points.53
ComoVenice
Score3083
Notable places within 2 km22464
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Como and Venice are level on 68.
ComoVenice
Score6868
Price level global64.964.9
Daily budget€155€155
Year-round weather. Venice leads by 8 points.8
ComoVenice
Score5866
Monthly daytime high7.1 °C to 27.3 °C8 °C to 30.4 °C
Monthly rainfall61 mm to 178 mm36 mm to 106 mm
Dry months02
0255075100

Where they differ

Como's strength is the ground around it: 23% of the surrounding land is protected against 4% around Venice, and 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Venice's 5.

Venice puts far more within walking distance of the centre, with many times as many notable places and museums, about three times as many restaurants, and many more attractions aimed at visitors, plus 3 theme parks where Como has none. It is also the only one of the two for swimming, with 20 beaches nearby and sea above 21°C in summer.

Where they are alike

Both run through a similar year: January highs of 7-8°C, summer highs of 27-30°C, and a little over 2000 hours of sunshine each.

Neither is a late-night city. Venice has more bars and clubs, but in both they sit close to the centre rather than spread across town. Eating out is similar in character too: Venice's choice is wider, though neither offers a large range of kitchens.

Which traveller are you?

If you want a city read on foot, Venice suits better: many times as many notable places and museums within walking distance of the centre, and about three times as many restaurants near it.

Families are better served in Venice too, with far more visitor attractions close in, 3 theme parks within reach where Como has none, and summer sea above 21°C.

Walkers and day-trippers should take Como: 23% of the land around it is protected, and 8 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Venice's 5, with park space near the centre much the same in both.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value figure is a national price level applied to both, identical by construction, so it tells you nothing about which city is cheaper. The €155 daily budget is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Como or Venice.

Como's warmest months are also among its wettest, at 158-172mm, so a strong summer rating is not a promise of dry days. Venice's beaches are nearby rather than in the city, and the months when the sea is swimmable are also when its walkable centre is fullest.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Como
7
9
14
17
21
25
27
27
22
17
12
8
Venice
8
10
15
19
24
28
30
30
25
19
13
8
Sea temperature, °C
Como
No coastline within reach
Venice
10
9
10
14
18
23
25
26
23
19
16
13
Rainfall, mm
Como
69
61
76
138
178
172
158
158
168
150
167
80
Venice
38
36
54
78
91
75
65
74
106
89
95
60
Daylight, hours per day
Como
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Venice
9
10
12
14
15
16
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Como
4
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
6
4
4
3
Venice
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
9
6
4
3
3

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Como: 1991-2020 normals, Lugano (23 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Treviso / S. Angelo (26.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Como is at its best from June to August, with highs of 25-27°C, though summer there is wet, at 158-172mm a month, and the shoulder months on either side are wetter still.

Venice's window runs longer, May to September, with highs of 24-30°C and 65-106mm of rain, and sea above 21°C from June through September, reaching 26°C at the end of summer. January and February are drier than anything Como gets, near 36-38mm.

Getting there

Flying fromComoVenice
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 45 m
€48-103
MXP · 34 km
2 h 0 m
€46-119
1 stop
VCE · 7 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 20 m
€46-63
MXP · 34 km
1 h 40 m
€68-109
VCE · 7 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 30 m
€34-53
MXP · 34 km
1 h 45 m
€41-56
VCE · 7 km
MadridMAD
2 h 0 m
€63-91
MXP · 34 km
2 h 20 m
€102-159
VCE · 7 km
CataniaCTA
1 h 55 m
€36-88
MXP · 34 km
1 h 45 m
no fares
VCE · 7 km
RomeFCO, CIA
1 h 15 m
€116-135
LIN · 43 km
1 h 10 m
€81-119
VCE · 7 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
8 h 15 m
€542-635
1 stop
MXP · 34 km
8 h 30 m
€637-650
VCE · 7 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 10 m
€375-563
MXP · 34 km
5 h 55 m
€366-421
2 stops
VCE · 7 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
10 h 10 m
€710-815
1 stop
MXP · 34 km
9 h 55 m
no fares
VCE · 7 km
CancunCUN
11 h 0 m
no fares
MXP · 34 km
11 h 10 m
no fares
VRN · 113 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 2026-08 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

MeasureComoVenice
Official languageItalianItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation201 m2 m
Main airportMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)34 km from centre203 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureComoVenice
City population83,184250,369
People per km²2,242602
Museums within 10 km952
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km85
Distinct cuisines in the centre2246
Swim season, months above 21 °C–4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Como or Venice somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.