Geneva or Toulouse?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on nature & day trips and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on value for money and year-round weather 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 Geneva if the point of the trip is what lies outside the city: protected land in most directions, large parkland close to the centre, and more places to drink and dance when the day ends.
Choose Toulouse if you want warmth and drier days, with summer highs near 29°C and winter days around 10°C, and prefer a centre with more attractions packed into walking distance.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Geneva and Toulouse are level on 0.
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 43 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 279 km | 145 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Geneva and Toulouse are level on 70.
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,028 | 962 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 35 | 37 |
Museums & heritage. Geneva leads by 1 points.1
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 52 | 51 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 27 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 18 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 67 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
Nightlife. Geneva leads by 7 points.7
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 43 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 549 | 389 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 427 | 343 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 88 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 60 | 36 |
Nature & day trips. Geneva leads by 38 points.38
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 21 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 27 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 21 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 43 hectares |
Good for families. Toulouse leads by 1 points.1
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 66 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 80 |
| Park area within 2 km | 182 hectares | 43 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Geneva leads by 5 points.5
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 99 | 72 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Toulouse leads by 27 points.27
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 62 |
| Price level global | 110.5 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €248 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Toulouse leads by 12 points.12
| Geneva | Toulouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 71 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.1 °C to 26.8 °C | 9.7 °C to 28.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 94 mm | 37 mm to 74 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Geneva is the better base for getting out of town. 27% of the land around it is protected, against 1% around Toulouse, and it has many times more park space near the centre. Evenings are wider too, with more places to drink and more nightclubs, most of them central.
Toulouse runs warmer across the year, with daytime highs of 10-29°C against Geneva's 5-27°C, and it gets a month at 40mm of rain or less where Geneva gets none. Tourist attractions also sit far more thickly around its centre. The estimated daily budget is €160 in France against €248 in Switzerland.
Where they are alike
Eating out is the closest call of all. The two put a similar number of restaurants near their centres, covering a comparable range of kitchens, so neither settles the choice on food.
Museums are near-matched as well: Geneva has somewhat more, Toulouse's cluster more tightly around the centre, and each has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. Both suit families to much the same degree, with 2 theme parks within reach of each, and both keep most of their notable places within walking distance of the middle.
Which traveller are you?
Walkers and day-trippers should take Geneva. 27% of the surrounding land is protected against 1% around Toulouse, and there is far more park space near the centre, so trips out of the city are the reason to be there.
Families are close to a tie. Toulouse has about three times as many tourist attractions near its centre and milder winter days around 10°C; Geneva answers with parkland. Each has 2 theme parks within reach.
Anyone out late is better served in Geneva, with more places to drink and roughly twice as many nightclubs, most of them central. Restaurants are a draw, so the evening rather than the meal decides it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €248 and €160, are national estimates for Switzerland and France, price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city. A heavily visited city can sit far from its own country's average, by more than the gap between the two figures, so read them as background, not as what either trip will cost.
Geneva has 43 beaches nearby, yet neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so that count is about access to water rather than swimming weather. A warm month is not a dry one either: Geneva's rainfall stays high right through its warmest months.
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). Toulouse: 1991-2020 normals, Toulouse / Blagnac (7 km from centre).
Geneva is at its best from June to August, when highs run 24-27°C. Rain does not step aside for the season, holding at 77-81mm through those months, and October is the wettest of the year at 94mm, which cuts the autumn window short.
Toulouse holds its good weather longer: July to September sits at 25-29°C with only 40-46mm of rain. Winter is easier too, around 10°C in January against Geneva's 5°C, and drier with it.
Getting there
| Flying from | Geneva | Toulouse |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 10 m €104-203 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 25 m €77-94 TLS · 7 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €91-200 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 40 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €160-186 GVA · 5 km | 1 h 50 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 25 m €156-181 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 1 h 55 m €109-157 TLS · 7 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 1 h 20 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 1 h 40 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| PortoOPO | 2 h 10 m €127-171 1 stop GVA · 5 km | 1 h 40 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 50 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 1 h 20 m €120-143 TLS · 7 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 1 h 45 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 5 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 2 h 30 m no fares TLS · 7 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 7 h 35 m no fares GVA · 5 km | 7 h 25 m no fares TLS · 7 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 | Toulouse |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Italian, Romansh | French |
| Currency | Swiss Franc (CHF) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CJ230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 403 m | 115 m |
| Main airport | Geneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre140 non-stop destinations | Toulouse-Blagnac Airport (TLS)7 km from centre80 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 9 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Geneva | Toulouse |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 209,061 | 514,819 |
| People per km² | 13,148 | 4,352 |
| Museums within 10 km | 35 | 24 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 80 | 101 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Geneva or Toulouse somewhere new.