VacationSelector

Dresden or Stuttgart?

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

Your match

Dresden
48
match

Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.

Stuttgart
✓ Best match
51
match

Wins on nature & day trips 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.

The verdict

Choose Dresden if your trip is mostly on foot: about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, museums clustered close by, and far more for children within easy reach.

Choose Stuttgart if you plan to get out of town. Most of the surrounding land is protected, 3 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Dresden's 1, and the evenings offer a little more.

Scoreboard

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

DresdenStuttgart
Beaches & swimming. Dresden and Stuttgart are level on 0.
DresdenStuttgart
Score00
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km223
Coast distance267 km476 km
Water distance——
Places to eat. Dresden leads by 2 points.2
DresdenStuttgart
Score6159
Restaurants within 2 km of centre422575
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km4229
Museums & heritage. Stuttgart leads by 2 points.2
DresdenStuttgart
Score5456
Museums within 10 km6665
Museums within 2 km of centre3421
Share of museums within 2 km %5232
Unesco sites within 50 km13
Nightlife. Stuttgart leads by 7 points.7
DresdenStuttgart
Score4249
Drinking venues within 4 km359524
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre265374
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7471
Nightclubs within 4 km4353
Nature & day trips. Stuttgart leads by 41 points.41
DresdenStuttgart
Score3980
Protected land share 50 km %1451
Landscape blanket share 50 km %931
Land share of disc %100100
Park area within 2 km80 hectares78 hectares
Good for families. Dresden leads by 14 points.14
DresdenStuttgart
Score5945
Tourist attractions within 2 km3211
Park area within 2 km80 hectares78 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km22
Sights concentration. Dresden leads by 9 points.9
DresdenStuttgart
Score5344
Notable places within 2 km8250
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Dresden and Stuttgart are level on 60.
DresdenStuttgart
Score6060
Price level global75.975.9
Daily budget€163€163
Year-round weather. Stuttgart leads by 1 points.1
DresdenStuttgart
Score6263
Monthly daytime high4 °C to 26.2 °C5.6 °C to 25.9 °C
Monthly rainfall31 mm to 83 mm33 mm to 79 mm
Dry months43
0255075100

Where they differ

Dresden is the more concentrated city. It has about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about three times as many attractions near the middle for families; its museums sit more tightly around the centre. Both have 2 theme parks within reach.

Stuttgart is built for leaving town. 51% of the land around it is protected against 14% around Dresden, and 3 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Dresden's 1. It has somewhat more bars and clubs near the centre.

Where they are alike

Neither is a swimming destination. Dresden has 22 beaches nearby against Stuttgart's 3, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so water is not the reason to pick either.

The weather runs close: both peak at 26°C in high summer and sit near 4-6°C in winter, with similar sunshine over the year. Museum holdings are comparable, and eating out is close too: Stuttgart has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, Dresden a wider range of kitchens.

Which traveller are you?

Travelling with children, Dresden is the easier base: about three times as many attractions near the centre, so days need less planning, and both cities have 2 theme parks within reach.

If you want days out of the city, Stuttgart: 51% of the land around it is protected against 14% around Dresden, with 3 UNESCO-listed places in day-trip reach against Dresden's 1.

For a short city break on foot, Dresden puts more notable places within walking distance and keeps its museums tightly grouped; if late nights matter more, Stuttgart has more bars and clubs near the centre.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value comparison between these two carries no information: the figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it cannot show which city costs less. The €163 a day beside it is one national estimate, not a measurement of either place.

Dresden's 22 nearby beaches suggest a swimming trip, but neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more. Dresden's warmest weeks are also its wettest, at 80-83mm, so summer warmth there comes with rain.

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
Dresden
4
6
10
17
21
24
26
26
21
15
9
6
Stuttgart
6
7
12
16
21
24
26
26
21
16
10
6
Rainfall, mm
Dresden
46
31
36
36
64
72
80
83
55
49
40
45
Stuttgart
35
33
43
37
72
77
79
63
49
55
50
50
Daylight, hours per day
Dresden
9
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Stuttgart
9
10
12
14
15
16
16
14
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Dresden
2
3
4
6
7
7
7
7
6
4
2
2
Stuttgart
2
3
5
6
7
7
8
7
6
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dresden: 1991-2020 normals, Dresden-Strehlen (3.8 km from centre). Stuttgart: 1991-2020 normals, Stuttgart / Neckartal (2.8 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Dresden suits a summer trip, with daytime highs of 24-26°C from June onward, but its rain peaks at the same time, up to 83mm in August. April is the drier month to walk the city, 17°C on 36mm.

Stuttgart reaches the same 26°C and stays drier into late summer at 63mm, and its winter is milder, 6°C against Dresden's 4°C. The wetter weeks come earlier there instead, 72-77mm as summer begins.

Getting there

Flying fromDresdenStuttgart
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 25 m
€118-136
PRG · 112 km
2 h 40 m
€139-291
STR · 10 km
AmsterdamAMS
1 h 30 m
€163-247
PRG · 112 km
1 h 15 m
€213-254
STR · 10 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 40 m
€86-113
PRG · 112 km
1 h 15 m
no fares
STR · 10 km
BarcelonaBCN
2 h 15 m
€111-155
PRG · 112 km
1 h 50 m
€111-165
STR · 10 km
AntalyaAYT
3 h 5 m
€318-375
1 stop
DRS · 10 km
3 h 15 m
€194-322
1 stop
STR · 10 km
PalmaPMI
2 h 30 m
no fares
DRS · 10 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
STR · 10 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
8 h 10 m
€737
BER · 147 km
7 h 55 m
€537-713
FRA · 146 km
HurghadaHRG
4 h 20 m
no fares
DRS · 10 km
4 h 25 m
no fares
STR · 10 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
9 h 20 m
€718-820
2 stops
BER · 147 km
9 h 50 m
€683-756
FRA · 146 km
Punta CanaPUJ
10 h 0 m
no fares
PRG · 112 km
9 h 30 m
no fares
FRA · 146 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

MeasureDresdenStuttgart
Official languageGermanGerman
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
Elevation126 m245 m
Main airportDresden Airport (DRS)10 km from centre12 non-stop destinationsStuttgart Airport (STR)10 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureDresdenStuttgart
City population564,904633,484
People per km²1,7203,054
Museums within 10 km7042
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Distinct cuisines in the centre7759

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dresden or Stuttgart 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. 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.