VacationSelector

Dublin or Amsterdam?

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

Your match

Dublin
55
match

Wins on beaches & swimming with your weighting.

Amsterdam
✓ Best match
65
match

Wins on nature & day trips and museums & heritage 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 Amsterdam if you want museums, a wide choice of restaurants and countryside worth leaving the city for; it is also the warmer of the two, reaching 23°C in summer.

Choose Dublin if a compact centre and quick access to the sea matter more, with the coast 3km out rather than 24km, and a smaller museum offering is no obstacle.

Scoreboard

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

DublinAmsterdam
Beaches & swimming. Dublin leads by 9 points.9
DublinAmsterdam
Score4940
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km1133
Coast distance3 km24 km
Water distance3 km24 km
Places to eat. Amsterdam leads by 13 points.13
DublinAmsterdam
Score7083
Restaurants within 2 km of centre9201,957
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km3744
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 25 points.25
DublinAmsterdam
Score5580
Museums within 10 km4798
Museums within 2 km of centre3769
Share of museums within 2 km %7970
Unesco sites within 50 km15
Nightlife. Amsterdam leads by 6 points.6
DublinAmsterdam
Score6470
Drinking venues within 4 km1,2391,543
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre9341,078
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %7570
Nightclubs within 4 km40114
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 34 points.34
DublinAmsterdam
Score2660
Protected land share 50 km %321
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %6282
Park area within 2 km43 hectares49 hectares
Good for families. Amsterdam leads by 14 points.14
DublinAmsterdam
Score5468
Tourist attractions within 2 km4174
Park area within 2 km43 hectares49 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km13
Sights concentration. Amsterdam leads by 6 points.6
DublinAmsterdam
Score6268
Notable places within 2 km141196
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Amsterdam leads by 1 points.1
DublinAmsterdam
Score5758
Price level global80.279.2
Daily budget€187€181
Year-round weather. Amsterdam leads by 3 points.3
DublinAmsterdam
Score5457
Monthly daytime high8.2 °C to 19.5 °C6.1 °C to 23.1 °C
Monthly rainfall52 mm to 83 mm42 mm to 85 mm
Dry months00
0255075100

Where they differ

Amsterdam's surroundings are the bigger draw: 21% of the land around it is protected against 3% around Dublin, and day trips reach 5 UNESCO-listed places against Dublin's 1. It also has about twice as many museums, twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, and 3 theme parks within reach against Dublin's 1.

Dublin's counter is the coast: the sea sits 3km from the centre rather than 24km, so a swim is an afternoon rather than a trip out.

Where they are alike

The two are closest on price, and that figure is a national one: an estimated €181 a day in one country and €187 in the other for restaurants and hotels. Neither trip starts from a different order of cost.

Beyond that, both are mild rather than hot, warmest in July and coolest in January, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less. Both keep their bars and notable places close to the centre, within walking distance.

Which traveller are you?

Museum-minded travellers should take Amsterdam: about twice as many museums as Dublin, and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Dublin's 1, with a wider choice of kitchens for dinner afterwards.

Families are better served in Amsterdam too, with roughly twice as many attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Dublin's 1, though park space near the centre is much the same in both.

Anyone wanting the sea within reach of a short city break should pick Dublin, with the coast 3km from the centre. Neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, so expect walks rather than swims.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget is a national estimate of restaurant and hotel prices, €181 for one country and €187 for the other, not a measurement of either city. Capitals and heavily visited cities can sit well away from their own national average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so it says nothing about which city costs more.

Beach counts describe access, not swimming. Dublin's sea is 3km from the centre, but neither city has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, and Amsterdam's beaches are a ride out. Its warmest months are also among its wettest.

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
Dublin
8
9
10
12
15
18
20
19
17
14
10
8
Amsterdam
6
7
11
15
18
21
23
23
20
15
10
7
Sea temperature, °C
Dublin
9
8
8
9
11
13
15
15
15
13
12
11
Amsterdam
6
5
6
8
12
15
17
19
17
15
11
8
Rainfall, mm
Dublin
62
52
52
55
58
65
62
74
61
78
83
72
Amsterdam
71
63
58
42
59
71
85
84
78
81
80
84
Daylight, hours per day
Dublin
8
10
12
14
16
17
17
15
13
11
9
8
Amsterdam
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Sunshine, hours per day
Dublin
2
3
4
5
6
6
5
5
4
3
2
2
Amsterdam
2
3
5
6
7
7
7
6
5
4
2
2

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Amsterdam is the warmer choice from May to August, with highs of 18-23°C and the sea at its warmest, 19°C, late in that run. April is its driest month at 42mm, while the peak summer weeks bring closer to 85mm.

Dublin peaks in July at 20°C with 62mm, cooler but steadier. Its edge is the quieter end of the year: late winter runs near 52mm and highs hold at 8-10°C, milder than Amsterdam at the same time.

Getting there

Flying fromDublinAmsterdam
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 10 m
€33-43
DUB · 9 km
1 h 5 m
€93-112
AMS · 12 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 35 m
€43-47
DUB · 9 km
1 h 10 m
€178-300
AMS · 12 km
ManchesterMAN
1 h 0 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
1 h 15 m
€145-187
AMS · 12 km
BarcelonaBCN
2 h 25 m
€71-105
DUB · 9 km
2 h 10 m
€130-171
AMS · 12 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
6 h 40 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
7 h 35 m
€512-556
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
MalagaAGP
2 h 50 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
2 h 55 m
€133-166
AMS · 12 km
MadridMAD
2 h 25 m
€66-101
1 stop
DUB · 9 km
2 h 25 m
€160-183
AMS · 12 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
7 h 40 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
6 h 45 m
€318-346
1 stop
AMS · 12 km
ShanghaiPVG, SHA
11 h 40 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
11 h 10 m
no fares
AMS · 12 km
CancunCUN
9 h 30 m
no fares
DUB · 9 km
10 h 25 m
no fares
AMS · 12 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

MeasureDublinAmsterdam
Official languageEnglish, IrishDutch
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 or 911
Elevation20 m-2 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre201 non-stop destinationsAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinAmsterdam
City population592,713921,468
People per km²5,1544,208
Museums within 10 km40101
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Distinct cuisines in the centre7498
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dublin or Amsterdam 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. 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. 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 2026-09-01. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.