VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The old town below the fortress, Salzburg
SalzburgThe old town below the fortress

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salzburg by Leonhard Niederwimmer, Pexels License.

Ghent or Salzburg?

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

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Salzburg for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Salzburg’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, Salzburg 35: Salzburg leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, Salzburg 45: Ghent leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent and Salzburg are level on 72.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, Salzburg 25: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, Salzburg 86: Salzburg leads by 51 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, Salzburg 80: Ghent leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, Salzburg 65: Salzburg leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, Salzburg 72: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, Salzburg 48: Ghent leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, Salzburg 32: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, Salzburg 80: Salzburg leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, Salzburg 55: Salzburg leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and Salzburg.

Your match

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

Ghent
54match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink with your weighting.

Salzburg
Best match
58match

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

Salzburg in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
159 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSalzburg

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). Salzburg: 1991-2020 normals, Salzburg (3.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSalzburg
Official languageFrench, German, DutchGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation12 m424 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSalzburg Airport (SZG)3 km from centre64 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSalzburg
City population272,657155,021
People per km²1,7282,360
Museums within 10 km3038
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km53
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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