Genoa or Salzburg?
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 good for families and museums & heritage 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 you want sea and warmth: 37 beaches nearby, four months of swimmable sea, and a compact centre with much more to see within walking distance.
Choose Salzburg if you are travelling with children, or want UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and park space near the centre, and you can accept a cooler, wetter year.
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 | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 4 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 37 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 653 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Genoa leads by 1 points.1
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 49 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 691 | 348 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 14 | 23 |
Museums & heritage. Salzburg leads by 5 points.5
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 47 | 42 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 33 | 27 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 64 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
Nightlife. Genoa leads by 14 points.14
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 36 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 637 | 294 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 419 | 241 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 66 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 17 | 16 |
Nature & day trips. Genoa leads by 8 points.8
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 27 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 8 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 61 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 39 hectares |
Good for families. Salzburg leads by 10 points.10
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 48 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 21 | 17 |
| Park area within 2 km | 29 hectares | 39 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Genoa leads by 15 points.15
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 46 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 130 | 54 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Genoa leads by 9 points.9
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 59 |
| Price level global | 64.9 | 76.9 |
| Daily budget | €155 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Genoa leads by 19 points.19
| Genoa | Salzburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 54 |
| Monthly daytime high | 11.7 °C to 27.9 °C | 3.4 °C to 24.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 12 mm to 122 mm | 47 mm to 168 mm |
| Dry months | 3 | 0 |
Where they differ
Genoa has a swimmable coast and Salzburg effectively does not. It also runs warmer through the year, with daytime highs of 12-28°C against 3-25°C, and three months at 40mm of rain or less where Salzburg has none. Its centre concentrates both the sights and the drinking, nearly all of it reachable on foot.
Salzburg answers with families and heritage: theme parks within reach where Genoa has none, more park space near the centre, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Genoa's 1.
Where they are alike
Eating out is the closest call. Genoa has about twice as many restaurants near the centre, while Salzburg spreads across a much wider range of kitchens, so the difference is character rather than quantity.
They also hold similar numbers of museums, similar shares of protected land around them, 8% near Genoa and 6% near Salzburg, and sit in countries with close national daily budgets, €155 and €160.
Which traveller are you?
If you are travelling for the water, Genoa is the only real option here: 37 beaches nearby and four months of sea at 21°C or more, against a Salzburg with almost none of that.
Families with young children get more from Salzburg: 4 theme parks within reach, none around Genoa, and more park space near the centre, though Genoa has somewhat more tourist attractions close in.
For a short city break on foot, Genoa's centre holds about twice as many notable places and twice as many places to drink; Salzburg suits those wanting UNESCO-listed sites within day-trip reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €155 and €160, are national price levels for Italy and Austria, not measurements of Genoa or Salzburg. A heavily visited city can sit well away from its country's average, by more than the gap between the two, so treat them as background rather than a comparison of these cities.
Genoa's coastal advantage is concentrated: the sea is only warm in late summer, which is also the driest and busiest stretch. Salzburg's warmest months are its wettest, near 160mm, so its best temperatures and its best days outdoors are not the same thing.
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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).
Genoa's window is June to September: daytime highs of 25-28°C, sea at 22-25°C, and as little as 12-26mm of rain in high summer. October and November bring over 100mm, and by then the sea has cooled.
Salzburg's warmest months, July and August at 25°C, are also its wettest, near 160mm. April and May are drier at 80-142mm and cooler at 16-20°C, which suits walking more than sitting outside. Winter is cold enough to plan around indoors.
Getting there
| Flying from | Genoa | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 25 m €227-312 1 stop MUC · 112 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 8 h 15 m €542-635 1 stop MXP · 137 km | 8 h 15 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| AthensATH | 2 h 25 m €91-99 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 25 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 35 m €78-142 MXP · 137 km | 3 h 0 m €253-306 1 stop MUC · 112 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 1 h 30 m €141-202 MUC · 112 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 137 km | 2 h 20 m €220-358 1 stop SZG · 3 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 25 m no fares GOA · 7 km | 1 h 55 m €166-216 MUC · 112 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 137 km | 5 h 55 m no fares SZG · 3 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 20 m no fares MXP · 137 km | 11 h 0 m no fares MUC · 112 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 11 h 50 m €1,114-1167 2 stops MXP · 137 km | 12 h 15 m no fares MUC · 112 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 2026-09 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 | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Italian | German, Austrian Sign Language |
| 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 | 424 m |
| Main airport | Genoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)7 km from centre23 non-stop destinations | Salzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre62 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Genoa | Salzburg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 558,745 | 155,021 |
| People per km² | 2,325 | 2,360 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 38 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 41 | 50 |
| 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 Salzburg somewhere new.