VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway or Tirana?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

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

Choose Tirana for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: Tirana leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Tirana 57: Tirana leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Tirana 42: Tirana leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Tirana 58: Tirana leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Tirana 62: Galway leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Tirana 64: Tirana leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Tirana 40: Galway leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Tirana 54: Galway leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Tirana 32: Galway leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 48 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Tirana 32: Galway leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Tirana 27: Galway leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Tirana.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Tirana
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and beaches 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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayTirana

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). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayTirana
Official languageEnglish, IrishAlbanian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Lek (ALL)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m110 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayTirana
City population83,456389,323
People per km²1,5639,314
Museums within 10 km411
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Tirana 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.