VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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

Choose Ghent for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Galway 28, Ghent 25: Galway leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Ghent 62: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Ghent 72: Ghent leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Ghent 55: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Ghent 35: Galway leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Ghent 50: Ghent leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Ghent 38: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Ghent 60: Ghent leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Ghent 33: Ghent leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Ghent.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayGhent

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayGhent
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
Elevation25 m12 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayGhent
City population83,456272,657
People per km²1,5631,728
Museums within 10 km430
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.