Dresden or Lyon?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and nightlife with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dresden and Lyon are level on 0.
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 22 | 26 |
| Coast distance | 267 km | 253 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Lyon leads by 18 points.18
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 79 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 422 | 1,691 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 42 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Lyon leads by 1 points.1
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 53 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 34 | 25 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 52 | 47 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Lyon leads by 16 points.16
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 359 | 866 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 265 | 611 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 47 |
Nature & day trips. Dresden leads by 6 points.6
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 9 | 6 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 80 hectares | 120 hectares |
Good for families. Dresden and Lyon are level on 59.
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 59 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 25 |
| Park area within 2 km | 80 hectares | 120 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Lyon leads by 1 points.1
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 82 | 86 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lyon leads by 2 points.2
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 62 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Lyon leads by 2 points.2
| Dresden | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4 °C to 26.2 °C | 7 °C to 28 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 31 mm to 83 mm | 43 mm to 101 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 0 |
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. Dresden: 1991-2020 normals, Dresden-Strehlen (3.8 km from centre). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Dresden | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €86-113 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 10 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €118-136 PRG · 112 km | 3 h 0 m €167-217 LYS · 20 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €163-247 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 30 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 45 m €62-97 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 30 m €79-99 LYS · 20 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 15 m €111-155 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 20 m €70-92 LYS · 20 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 40 m no fares LEJ · 113 km | 1 h 35 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 25 m €57-79 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 0 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| TunisTUN | 2 h 45 m no fares BER · 147 km | 1 h 55 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 10 m €737 BER · 147 km | 8 h 0 m no fares GVA · 111 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 9 h 20 m €718-820 2 stops BER · 147 km | 10 h 20 m no fares GVA · 111 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
| Measure | Dresden | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 126 m | 160 m |
| Main airport | Dresden Airport (DRS)10 km from centre12 non-stop destinations | Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre139 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dresden | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 564,904 | 519,127 |
| People per km² | 1,720 | 10,838 |
| Museums within 10 km | 70 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 77 | 148 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dresden or Lyon somewhere new.