VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The Opera House on the fjord, Oslo
OsloThe Opera House on the fjord

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Oslo by Beata May, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Ghent or Oslo?

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

  • day trips
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Oslo for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Oslo’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, Oslo 36: Oslo leads by 11 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Oslo 55: Ghent leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Oslo 66: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Oslo 48: Ghent leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Oslo 82: Oslo leads by 47 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Oslo 52: Ghent leads by 36 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Oslo 63: Oslo leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Oslo 85: Oslo leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent and Oslo are level on 50.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Oslo 14: Ghent leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Oslo 62: Oslo leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Oslo 60: Oslo leads by 27 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Ghent
54match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

Oslo
56match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Oslo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
GhentOslo

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). Oslo: 1991-2020 normals, Oslo-Blindern (4.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentOslo
Official languageFrench, German, DutchNorwegian, Nynorsk, Bokmål, Sámi
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Norwegian Krone (NOK)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112Police 112, ambulance 113, fire 110
Elevation12 m23 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsOslo-Gardermoen International Airport (OSL)37 km from centre147 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentOslo
City population272,657717,710
People per km²1,728-
Museums within 10 km3060
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or Oslo 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.