Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.
Ghent 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 Madrid for
- nightlife
- nature and the outdoors
- shopping
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.
What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Madrid.
Your match
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.
Wins on beaches with your weighting.
Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors 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
Madrid in July
Daytime high, °C
Rainfall in the month, mm
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). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).
Before you go
| Measure | Ghent | Madrid |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Dutch | Spanish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 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 | 12 m | 663 m |
| Main airport | Brussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations | Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ghent | Madrid |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 272,657 | 3,506,730 |
| People per km² | 1,728 | 5,801 |
| Museums within 10 km | 30 | 88 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | - |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Madrid somewhere new.