VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Cork or Madrid?

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 Cork for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Cork 25, Madrid 5: Cork leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Madrid 60: Cork leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Madrid 36: Madrid leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Madrid.

Your match

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

Cork
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CorkMadrid

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkMadrid
Official languageEnglish, IrishSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m663 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkMadrid
City population222,3333,506,730
People per km²5,9615,801
Museums within 10 km588
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cork or Madrid 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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.