VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Ghent or Paphos?

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

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Paphos 45: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Paphos 62: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Paphos 38: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Paphos 64: Ghent leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Paphos 40: Ghent leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Paphos 25: Ghent leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Paphos 52: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Paphos 22: Ghent leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Paphos.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches 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

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentPaphos

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.

Paphos 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.

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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentPaphos
Official languageFrench, German, DutchTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m72 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentPaphos
City population272,65735,961
People per km²1,7281,987
Museums within 10 km304
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km52
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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