VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Ghent or Lyon?

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 Ghent for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • getting around

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

Choose Lyon for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’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. Ghent 25, Lyon 12: Ghent leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Lyon 64: Lyon leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Lyon 77: Ghent leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Lyon 62: Lyon leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Lyon 77: Ghent leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Lyon 42: Lyon leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Lyon 40: Lyon leads by 7 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Lyon.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
GhentLyon

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentLyon
Official languageFrench, German, DutchFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m160 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentLyon
City population272,657519,127
People per km²1,72810,838
Museums within 10 km3043
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Lyon 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. 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.