Geneva or Reykjavik?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Reykjavik leads by 60 points.60
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 33 |
| Coast distance | 279 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Geneva leads by 21 points.21
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 49 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,028 | 261 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Geneva leads by 2 points.2
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 34 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 68 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. Geneva leads by 23 points.23
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 27 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 549 | 192 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 427 | 166 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 86 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 60 | 10 |
Nature & day trips. Geneva and Reykjavik are level on 59.
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 59 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 27 | 16 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 21 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 56 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 28 hectares |
Good for families. Geneva leads by 23 points.23
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 42 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 21 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 28 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Geneva leads by 8 points.8
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 48 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 99 | 61 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Reykjavik leads by 6 points.6
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 41 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 102.8 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €243 |
Year-round weather. Geneva leads by 22 points.22
| Geneva | Reykjavik | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 37 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 3.2 °C to 14.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 41 mm to 97 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
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. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Geneva | Reykjavik |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 5 km | 2 h 55 m €245-283 1 stop KEF · 37 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 5 km | 3 h 20 m €247-346 1 stop KEF · 37 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 2 h 0 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 3 h 10 m €216-282 1 stop KEF · 37 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 5 km | 3 h 5 m €293-407 2 stops KEF · 37 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 0 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 5 h 35 m €389-592 KEF · 37 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 2 h 35 m €227-256 KEF · 37 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 3 h 30 m €313-393 2 stops KEF · 37 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 4 h 10 m no fares KEF · 37 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 25 m €65-78 GVA · 5 km | 4 h 10 m €224-296 1 stop KEF · 37 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 20 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 10 h 0 m no fares KEF · 37 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. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Geneva | Reykjavik |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | Icelandic |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Iceland Krona (ISK) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 403 m | 8 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Keflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Geneva | Reykjavik |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 209,061 | 138,772 |
| People per km² | 13,148 | 569 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 23 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 80 | 42 |
| 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 Geneva or Reykjavik somewhere new.