VacationSelector
The fountain in Piazza De Ferrari, Genoa
GenoaThe fountain in Piazza De Ferrari
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Genoa by Faber1893, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Genoa or Madrid?

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 Genoa for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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

Choose Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Genoa 62, Madrid 5: Genoa leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Genoa 72, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Genoa 76, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Genoa 42, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Genoa 78, Madrid 60: Genoa leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Genoa 83, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Genoa 64, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Genoa 66, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Genoa 48, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Genoa 55, Madrid 50: Genoa leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Genoa 52, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Genoa 35, Madrid 36: Madrid leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Genoa and Madrid.

Your match

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

Genoa
61match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Genoa in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GenoaMadrid

Where the figures come from

Genoa 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.

Genoa's sunshine is measured 80 km from the centre, at Capo Mele.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Genoa: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (6.7 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenoaMadrid
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m663 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenoaMadrid
City population558,7453,506,730
People per km²2,3255,801
Museums within 10 km5188
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.