VacationSelector
The Campanile, Trinity College, Dublin
DublinThe Campanile, Trinity College
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Dublin by David Kernan, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Dublin or Ghent?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Ghent for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Dublin leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Dublin 50, Ghent 62: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Dublin 64, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Dublin 62, Ghent 55: Dublin leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Dublin 70, Ghent 35: Dublin leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Dublin 72, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Dublin 57, Ghent 50: Dublin leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Dublin 66, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Dublin 54, Ghent 50: Dublin leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Dublin 20, Ghent 38: Ghent leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Dublin 65, Ghent 60: Dublin leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Dublin 25, Ghent 33: Ghent leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Dublin and Ghent.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Dublin
53match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
DublinGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dublin: 1991-2020 normals, Dublin Airport (9.3 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDublinGhent
Official languageEnglish, IrishFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m12 m
Main airportDublin Airport (DUB)9 km from centre200 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureDublinGhent
City population592,713272,657
People per km²5,1541,728
Museums within 10 km4030
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Ghent 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.