VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The White Tower from the promenade, Thessaloniki
ThessalonikiThe White Tower from the promenade

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Thessaloniki by Destinygreece, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway or Thessaloniki?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Thessaloniki for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Thessaloniki’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, Thessaloniki 55: Thessaloniki leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Thessaloniki 77: Thessaloniki leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Thessaloniki 73: Thessaloniki leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Thessaloniki 76: Thessaloniki leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Thessaloniki 66: Galway leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Thessaloniki 74: Thessaloniki leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Thessaloniki 60: Thessaloniki leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Thessaloniki 50: Thessaloniki leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Thessaloniki 66: Thessaloniki leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Thessaloniki 52: Galway leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Thessaloniki 33: Thessaloniki leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Thessaloniki
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights and prices 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

Thessaloniki in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayThessaloniki

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). Thessaloniki: 1991-2020 normals, Thessaloniki Airport (14 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayThessaloniki
Official languageEnglish, IrishGreek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsThessaloniki Macedonia International Airport (SKG)14 km from centre90 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayThessaloniki
City population83,456309,617
People per km²1,56316,042
Museums within 10 km432
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galway or Thessaloniki 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. 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.