VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Dublin or Galle?

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 Dublin for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • getting around

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

Choose Galle for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Galle’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. Dublin 27, Galle 80: Galle leads by 53 points.
Food & drink. Dublin and Galle are level on 50.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Galle 55: Dublin leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Galle 18: Dublin leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Galle 66: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Galle 50: Dublin leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Galle 42: Dublin leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Galle 35: Dublin leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Galle 33: Dublin leads by 21 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Galle 72: Galle leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Galle 10: Dublin leads by 55 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Galle 70: Galle leads by 45 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Galle.

Your match

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

Dublin
Best match
53match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Galle
48match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Dublin in July

20 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
DublinGalle

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureDublinGalle
Official languageEnglish, IrishTamil, Sinhala
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Sri Lanka Rupee (LKR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzGM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+5:30
Emergency number112Police 119, ambulance 110, fire 110
Elevation20 m0 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureDublinGalle
City population592,71393,118
People per km²5,154-
Museums within 10 km402
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dublin or Galle 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.