Frankfurt or Stuttgart?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather 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 Frankfurt if you want the denser city: more within walking distance of the centre, more museums, more places to eat and drink, and more attractions and park space for children.
Choose Stuttgart if the country around the city matters more than the streets in it. 51% of the surrounding land is protected against 28% around Frankfurt, and its winter months are the drier of the two.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Frankfurt and Stuttgart are level on 0.
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 4 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 327 km | 476 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Frankfurt leads by 11 points.11
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,160 | 575 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Frankfurt leads by 13 points.13
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 79 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 43 | 21 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 54 | 32 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 3 |
Nightlife. Frankfurt leads by 10 points.10
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 931 | 524 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 691 | 374 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 56 | 53 |
Nature & day trips. Stuttgart leads by 16 points.16
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 80 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 51 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 11 | 31 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 124 hectares | 78 hectares |
Good for families. Frankfurt leads by 23 points.23
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 45 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 45 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 124 hectares | 78 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Frankfurt leads by 17 points.17
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 129 | 50 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Frankfurt and Stuttgart are level on 60.
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Stuttgart leads by 1 points.1
| Frankfurt | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5 °C to 26.2 °C | 5.6 °C to 25.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 68 mm | 33 mm to 79 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 3 |
Where they differ
Frankfurt has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly twice as many restaurants and twice as many places to drink, and many times more tourist attractions near the centre, along with about twice the park space. Its museums are the larger set and sit tightly around the centre, with 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Stuttgart's 3.
Stuttgart's strength is outside town: 51% of the land around it is protected against 28% around Frankfurt, so walking and day trips carry the trip rather than the centre. Both have 2 theme parks within reach.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place to swim. Frankfurt has 4 beaches nearby and Stuttgart 3, but neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so water is incidental to either trip.
The weather barely separates them: both run daytime highs of about 5-26°C across the year, with the same warm high summer and the same cold January. Both also offer a similar range of kitchens, so what you can eat differs less than how much choice sits around you.
Which traveller are you?
Families with children are better served in Frankfurt, which has many times as many tourist attractions near the centre and about twice the park space. Both cities have 2 theme parks within reach, so the difference is what fills the ordinary days.
Walkers and day-trippers should take Stuttgart. With 51% of the surrounding land protected against 28% around Frankfurt, the countryside is the reason to be there rather than a break from the city.
A short city weekend suits Frankfurt: museums clustered tightly around the centre, about twice as many places to drink, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach if you want a day out.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. It is a national price level applied to both and identical by construction, so neither can be called the cheaper trip on this evidence. The €163 daily budget shown beside it is that same national estimate, not a measurement of Frankfurt or of Stuttgart.
The warmest months are also among the wettest in both: July brings 68mm in Frankfurt and 79mm in Stuttgart, so peak warmth does not mean settled weather. The beaches counted near each city do not change that picture either, since neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more.
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.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Frankfurt: 1991-2020 normals, Frankfurt Westend (2 km from centre). Stuttgart: 1991-2020 normals, Stuttgart / Neckartal (2.8 km from centre).
Frankfurt is at its best from June to August, with highs of 24-26°C, though those months carry 60-68mm of rain. September, at 21°C and 50mm, is the quieter end of the same season.
Stuttgart matches that summer at 26°C but is wetter from May to July, 72-79mm against Frankfurt's 62-68mm. Its advantage is the cold half of the year: January and February bring 33-35mm against Frankfurt's 44-52mm, which makes a winter or early-spring visit the drier of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | Frankfurt | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 50 m €135-301 FRA · 13 km | 2 h 40 m €139-291 STR · 10 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares FRA · 13 km | 2 h 0 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 25 m €74-124 FRA · 13 km | 1 h 35 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| SingaporeSIN, XSP | 12 h 45 m no fares FRA · 13 km | 12 h 45 m no fares FRA · 146 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 20 m €264-346 FRA · 13 km | 3 h 15 m €194-322 1 stop STR · 10 km |
| BerlinBER | 1 h 10 m €157-188 FRA · 13 km | 1 h 15 m €197-289 1 stop STR · 10 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 10 m no fares FRA · 13 km | 12 h 10 m no fares FRA · 146 km |
| HamburgHAM, XFW, LBC | 1 h 10 m €147-192 1 stop FRA · 13 km | 1 h 20 m €228-257 STR · 10 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 20 m €296-339 1 stop FRA · 13 km | 6 h 20 m €296-339 1 stop FRA · 146 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 9 h 25 m no fares FRA · 13 km | 9 h 30 m no fares STR · 10 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
| Measure | Frankfurt | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | German |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 101 m | 245 m |
| Main airport | Frankfurt Main Airport (FRA)13 km from centre293 non-stop destinations | Stuttgart Airport (STR)10 km from centre121 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Frankfurt | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 775,790 | 633,484 |
| People per km² | 3,124 | 3,054 |
| Museums within 10 km | 53 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 71 | 59 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Frankfurt or Stuttgart somewhere new.