Ghent or Paris?
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 with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife 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 Paris if you want the most within walking range: many times as many notable places, museums and restaurants near the centre, and warmer summers, with highs of 24-26°C.
Choose Ghent if you want a smaller city where bars and museums sit tightly around the centre, with 8 beaches nearby and 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Ghent leads by 26 points.26
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 26 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 8 | 2 |
| Coast distance | 32 km | 149 km |
| Water distance | 32 km | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 20 points.20
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 90 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 764 | 4,732 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 49 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 18 points.18
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 76 |
| Museums within 10 km | 24 | 185 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 65 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 83 | 35 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 39 points.39
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 88 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 570 | 3,796 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 446 | 1,694 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 45 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 26 | 201 |
Nature & day trips. Paris leads by 14 points.14
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 48 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 7 | 28 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 4 | 26 |
| Land share of disc % | 87 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 82 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 25 points.25
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 19 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 82 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 48 points.48
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 94 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 55 | 865 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris leads by 2 points.2
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 62 |
| Price level global | 76.2 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €180 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 10 points.10
| Ghent | Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 66 |
| Monthly daytime high | 6.4 °C to 22 °C | 7.8 °C to 26 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 35 mm to 79 mm | 38 mm to 75 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 1 |
Where they differ
Paris packs many times as many notable places into walking distance of the centre, and many times as many bars and clubs, though only about half of those sit centrally. It also has many times as many restaurants and museums, and 3 theme parks against Ghent's 1.
Ghent's answer is water and scale: 8 beaches nearby against Paris's 2, a sea that peaks at 19°C in August, and drinking places that sit almost all near the centre rather than spread across the city.
Where they are alike
The two are closest on price level. The daily estimates behind them are national ones, €180 for Belgium and €160 for France, close enough that neither country's figure separates the two cities.
Weather and open space are near matches too. Both run cool in winter and mild in summer, 6-22°C across the year in Ghent and 8-26°C in Paris, and each has one month at 40mm of rain or less. Park space near the centre is much the same in both.
Which traveller are you?
Someone with three days and a museum list should take Paris: many times as many museums and notable places sit within walking distance, so more of the trip is spent looking than travelling.
Someone travelling with children will find more to fill the days in Paris, with many times as many attractions near the centre and 3 theme parks within reach against Ghent's 1; park space is similar in both.
Someone who wants water and a compact evening should take Ghent: 8 beaches nearby, a sea reaching 19°C in August, and bars and museums clustered around the centre rather than spread out.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures are national estimates for Belgium and France rather than measurements of either city. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit a long way from its own country's average, by more than the gap between the two national figures, so read them as background rather than as what either trip will cost.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. Ghent's warmest months are also among its wettest, 74-79mm in July and August, so a strong summer month there is not a dry one.
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. Ghent: 1991-2020 normals, Vlissingen (44.9 km from centre). Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre).
Ghent is at its best from June to August, when highs reach 20-22°C, though August is also its wettest at 79mm and the autumn stays near 72-78mm. April is the driest month, 35mm, but only 13°C.
Paris holds a longer season: June to August at 24-26°C and September still 22°C, with rain around 51-58mm. May is its wettest at 75mm, while February and March are drier at 38-41mm on highs of 9-13°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Ghent | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 15 m €98-170 BRU · 56 km | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m no fares BRU · 56 km | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 55 m €47-116 BRU · 56 km | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €98-165 1 stop BRU · 56 km | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 25 m €36-101 BRU · 56 km | 1 h 20 m €61-89 CDG · 22 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 40 m €120-263 BRU · 56 km | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 2 h 5 m €87-136 1 stop BRU · 56 km | 1 h 55 m €118-132 ORY · 14 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 45 m no fares BRU · 56 km | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 11 h 45 m no fares BRU · 56 km | 12 h 5 m €705-999 1 stop CDG · 22 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares BRU · 56 km | 11 h 45 m €806-1124 CDG · 22 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 2026-08 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 | Ghent | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French, German, Dutch | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 27 m |
| Main airport | Brussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ghent | Paris |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 272,657 | 2,103,778 |
| People per km² | 1,728 | 19,960 |
| Museums within 10 km | 30 | 251 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 83 | 169 |
| 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 Paris somewhere new.