VacationSelector
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Ghent by ykeiko, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Ghent or St. Pete Beach?

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

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Ghent 62, St. Pete Beach 40: Ghent leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Ghent 72, St. Pete Beach 18: Ghent leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Ghent 55, St. Pete Beach 28: Ghent leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ghent 35, St. Pete Beach 57: St. Pete Beach leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Ghent 88, St. Pete Beach 58: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Ghent 50, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Ghent 78, St. Pete Beach 30: Ghent leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Ghent 50, St. Pete Beach 20: Ghent leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Ghent 38, St. Pete Beach 32: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ghent 60, St. Pete Beach 20: Ghent leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ghent 33, St. Pete Beach 42: St. Pete Beach leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ghent and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Ghent
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
GhentSt. Pete Beach

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.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

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). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGhentSt. Pete Beach
Official languageFrench, German, Dutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation12 m2 m
Main airportBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureGhentSt. Pete Beach
City population272,6578,879
People per km²1,728173
Museums within 10 km302
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ghent or St. Pete Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.