Gdansk or Vilnius?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and sights concentration 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 Gdansk if you are travelling with children or want the coast: beaches within easy reach, 3 theme parks where Vilnius has none, and many more attractions close to the centre.
Choose Vilnius if your days are built around museums, walking between sights and eating out. It has about twice as many museums and restaurants near the centre, and slightly warmer summers.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Gdansk leads by 55 points.55
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 16 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 260 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Vilnius leads by 8 points.8
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 60 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 348 | 537 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 28 | 32 |
Museums & heritage. Vilnius leads by 14 points.14
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 74 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 28 | 54 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 65 | 73 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
Nightlife. Vilnius leads by 10 points.10
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 46 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 269 | 464 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 203 | 388 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 75 | 84 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 30 | 39 |
Nature & day trips. Gdansk leads by 4 points.4
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 41 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 3 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 70 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 61 hectares | 88 hectares |
Good for families. Gdansk leads by 24 points.24
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 51 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 108 | 27 |
| Park area within 2 km | 61 hectares | 88 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Vilnius leads by 13 points.13
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 65 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 76 | 161 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Gdansk leads by 3 points.3
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 79 | 76 |
| Price level global | 49 | 53.1 |
| Daily budget | €133 | €125 |
Year-round weather. Vilnius leads by 1 points.1
| Gdansk | Vilnius | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 53 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.7 °C to 22.1 °C | -1.5 °C to 24 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 37 mm to 87 mm | 41 mm to 90 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Gdansk is the one with a coast: 20 beaches nearby against Vilnius's 16, and a sea that reaches 19°C in August. It also has many times as many tourist attractions near the centre, plus 3 theme parks within reach where Vilnius has none.
Vilnius is the stronger city for museums, about twice as many as Gdansk, with 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Gdansk's 2. Its notable places also cluster more tightly around the centre, roughly twice as many within walking distance.
Where they are alike
Weather is where they sit closest: both are cold-winter, short-summer cities, Gdansk running 1-22°C across the year and Vilnius -1-24°C, with near-identical annual sunshine.
Beyond that, day trips look similar. Protected land accounts for 12% of the area around Gdansk and 10% around Vilnius, with Vilnius holding a little more park space near the centre. The two national daily budget estimates sit within €8 of each other.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children: Gdansk. It has many times as many attractions near the centre, 3 theme parks within reach where Vilnius has none, and 20 beaches nearby with the sea at 19°C in August.
A traveller here for museums and old streets: Vilnius, with about twice as many museums, 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and roughly twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Anyone whose evenings matter: Vilnius again. It has about twice as many restaurants and about twice as many places to drink as Gdansk, most of them central, though the range of kitchens is similar in both.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €133 and €125, are national estimates for the two countries, not measurements of either city. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than these two figures sit from each other, so the gap says nothing about which city costs more.
Gdansk's coast is less of an advantage than the beach count suggests: the sea peaks at 19°C in August and neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and August is also one of the wettest months. The theme parks and attractions lean on that same short window.
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. Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre). Vilnius: 1991-2020 normals, Vilnius (13 km from centre).
Gdansk peaks in July and August at 22°C, with the sea at its warmest, 19°C, in August; both are among its wettest months, 87mm and 78mm. Its driest stretch is February to April, 37-40mm, but highs of 2-12°C keep you indoors.
Vilnius runs warmer in high summer, 24°C in July, though July is also its wettest at 90mm. September favours Vilnius: similar highs of 18°C in both, but 58mm of rain against Gdansk's 74mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Gdansk | Vilnius |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 45 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| OsloOSL, TRF | 1 h 35 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 55 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 3 h 0 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| WarsawWAW, WMI | 1 h 0 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 10 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 10 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 35 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 1 h 20 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 1 h 30 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 40 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 10 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 45 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 15 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 5 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 2 h 30 m no fares VNO · 6 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 30 m no fares GDN · 13 km | 4 h 20 m no fares VNO · 6 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.
Before you go
| Measure | Gdansk | Vilnius |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Polish | Lithuanian |
| Currency | Zloty (PLN) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE50 Hz | CF220 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 98 m |
| Main airport | Gdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre65 non-stop destinations | Vilnius International Airport (VNO)6 km from centre83 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Gdansk | Vilnius |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 487,834 | 581,475 |
| People per km² | 714 | 1,450 |
| Museums within 10 km | 37 | 30 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 48 | 54 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Gdansk or Vilnius somewhere new.