VacationSelector
The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
GenevaThe Jet d'Eau and a lake boat
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Geneva by Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Geneva or York?

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 Geneva for

  • beaches
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose York for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Geneva 45, York 14: Geneva leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Geneva 55, York 42: Geneva leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Geneva 58, York 70: York leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Geneva 38, York 36: Geneva leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Geneva 82, York 62: Geneva leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Geneva and York are level on 80.
Good for families. Geneva 57, York 60: York leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Geneva 86, York 72: Geneva leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Geneva 68, York 46: Geneva leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Geneva 5, York 38: York leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Geneva 60, York 38: Geneva leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Geneva 55, York 34: Geneva leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Geneva and York.

Your match

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

Geneva
Best match
57match

Wins on beaches and shopping with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Geneva in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GenevaYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenevaYork
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, RomanshEnglish
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation403 m25 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenevaYork
City population211,152208,400
People per km²13,280766
Museums within 10 km3424
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Geneva or York somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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.