VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Galway or Istanbul?

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
  • day trips

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

Choose Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Istanbul’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, Istanbul 45: Istanbul leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Istanbul 87: Istanbul leads by 42 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Istanbul 90: Istanbul leads by 57 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Istanbul 77: Istanbul leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Istanbul 52: Galway leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Istanbul 55: Galway leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Istanbul 55: Istanbul leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Istanbul 86: Istanbul leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Istanbul 60: Istanbul leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Istanbul 62: Istanbul leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Istanbul 75: Istanbul leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Istanbul.

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 day trips with your weighting.

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayIstanbul

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayIstanbul
Official languageEnglish, IrishTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m100 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayIstanbul
City population83,45615,655,924
People per km²1,5632,930
Museums within 10 km473
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Istanbul 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.