VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License.

Ghent or Reykjavik?

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
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Reykjavik for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Reykjavik’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, Reykjavik 12: Ghent leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Reykjavik 42: Ghent leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, Reykjavik 25: Ghent leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Reykjavik 45: Ghent leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Reykjavik 92: Reykjavik leads by 57 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Reykjavik 35: Ghent leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Reykjavik 55: Reykjavik leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Reykjavik 55: Ghent leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Reykjavik 25: Ghent leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Reykjavik 6: Ghent leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Reykjavik 45: Ghent leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Reykjavik 88: Reykjavik leads by 55 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Reykjavik.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on day trips and culture and sights with your weighting.

Reykjavik
44match

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
GhentReykjavik

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). Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentReykjavik
Official languageFrench, German, DutchIcelandic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Iceland Krona (ISK)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m8 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentReykjavik
City population272,657138,772
People per km²1,728569
Museums within 10 km3023
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
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 Reykjavik 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.