VacationSelector
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens

Photos: Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Florence or Malaga?

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 Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Malaga for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Malaga’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. Florence 14, Malaga 77: Malaga leads by 63 points.
Food & drink. Florence 74, Malaga 68: Florence leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Florence 94, Malaga 65: Florence leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Florence 42, Malaga 62: Malaga leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Florence 58, Malaga 73: Malaga leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Florence 98, Malaga 87: Florence leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Florence 45, Malaga 70: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Florence 78, Malaga 70: Florence leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Florence 72, Malaga 55: Florence leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Florence 35, Malaga 55: Malaga leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Florence 58, Malaga 45: Florence leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Florence and Malaga are level on 42.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Florence and Malaga.

Your match

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

Florence
59match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Malaga
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FlorenceMalaga

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre). Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFlorenceMalaga
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation50 m18 m
Main airportFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureFlorenceMalaga
City population360,930599,063
People per km²3,5281,517
Museums within 10 km14132
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Florence or Malaga 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.