Genoa or Ljubljana?
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 year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and nature & day trips 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 Genoa if the sea is the point of the trip: 37 beaches nearby, four months warm enough to swim, and a milder winter than Ljubljana's.
Choose Ljubljana if you would rather spend your days in parks and protected countryside, want a wider range of kitchens to eat in, and can accept rain in most months and a genuinely cold winter.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Genoa leads by 73 points.73
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 37 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 72 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Ljubljana leads by 5 points.5
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 55 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 691 | 292 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Genoa and Ljubljana are level on 55.
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 26 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 33 | 23 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 88 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
Nightlife. Genoa leads by 5 points.5
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 45 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 637 | 458 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 419 | 284 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 17 | 24 |
Nature & day trips. Ljubljana leads by 5 points.5
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 40 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 8 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 5 |
| Land share of disc % | 61 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 75 hectares |
Good for families. Genoa and Ljubljana are level on 38.
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 21 | 12 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 75 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Genoa leads by 3 points.3
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 130 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Ljubljana leads by 4 points.4
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 72 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 59.6 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €131 |
Year-round weather. Genoa leads by 17 points.17
| Genoa | Ljubljana | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.7 °C to 27.9 °C | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 12 mm to 122 mm | 67 mm to 159 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Genoa is the trip with a coast: beaches within easy reach and a sea that reaches 25°C in August. It is milder year-round too, with January highs of 12°C against Ljubljana's 4°C, and a summer that stays dry, under 40mm in the driest months.
Ljubljana answers with green space: 13% of the land around it is protected, and there is far more park space near the centre, plus a wider range of kitchens to eat in. Rain arrives in every month of the year.
Where they are alike
Both carry roughly the same weight of history, reached differently: Genoa has about twice as many museums, while Ljubljana puts 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Genoa's 1.
Both are compact, with their notable places clustered around the centre, Genoa slightly more tightly. Families face the same trade-off: more attractions near the centre in Genoa, more park space in Ljubljana, and no theme park within reach of either. The national price levels behind them are close as well.
Which traveller are you?
If swimming decides your holiday, take Genoa. The beaches are close to the city and the sea is warm enough from June to September, and the dry summer makes those beach days reliable.
Walkers and day-trippers are better served by Ljubljana, with more protected countryside around the city and far more park space near the centre, though summer rain will interrupt plans more often than in Genoa.
For eating and evenings out it depends what you want: Genoa has more restaurants and more places to drink near the centre, Ljubljana a broader spread of kitchens and more nightclubs. In both, they sit within walking distance of the middle.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €155 and €131, are national price levels for Italy and Slovenia, not measurements of Genoa or Ljubljana. A capital, or a heavily visited port city, can sit further from its own country's average than the two averages sit from each other, so treat the gap as background, not as a comparison of what your trip will cost.
Genoa's beach strength and its driest months land in the same short summer window, which is also when the coast is busiest. Ljubljana matches Genoa's summer highs, but its warmest months are also among its wettest, and an annual weather picture hides a January high of 4°C.
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. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre). Ljubljana: 1991-2020 normals, Ljubljana / Bezigrad (1.9 km from centre).
Genoa peaks in July and August, with highs of 27-28°C, sea at 25°C and next to no rain. Autumn turns wet, but winter stays mild at 12-13°C, so a city break still works out of season.
Ljubljana is at its best from May to August, warming to 28°C, though rain tops 110mm in each of those months and September is wetter still. January highs of 4°C make a winter visit a cold one, better suited to indoor days than long walks.
Getting there
| Flying from | Genoa | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 15 m €67-76 LIN · 119 km | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| DohaDOH | 5 h 50 m no fares MXP · 137 km | 5 h 15 m no fares ZAG · 126 km |
| MadridMAD | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 40 m no fares ZAG · 126 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 25 m €65-131 MXP · 137 km | 1 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 126 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 137 km | 5 h 45 m €374-528 2 stops LJU · 20 km |
| SplitSPU | 1 h 20 m no fares LIN · 119 km | 55 m no fares ZAG · 126 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 55 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km |
| AthensATH | 2 h 25 m €91-99 MXP · 137 km | 1 h 55 m no fares ZAG · 126 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 | Genoa | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | Slovene |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CFL230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 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 | 20 m | 309 m |
| Main airport | Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre23 non-stop destinations | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 21 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Genoa | Ljubljana |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 558,745 | 284,293 |
| People per km² | 2,325 | 1,736 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 14 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 41 | 63 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 4 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Genoa or Ljubljana somewhere new.