VacationSelector
The Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill, Halifax
HalifaxThe Old Town Clock on Citadel Hill
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace

Photos: Halifax by Danieljmacdonald, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Halifax or Madrid?

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 Halifax for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Madrid’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. Halifax 32, Madrid 5: Halifax leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Halifax 50, Madrid 80: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Halifax 42, Madrid 86: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Halifax 46, Madrid 85: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Halifax 62, Madrid 60: Halifax leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Halifax 63, Madrid 89: Madrid leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Halifax 55, Madrid 68: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Halifax 48, Madrid 84: Madrid leads by 36 points.
Shopping & style. Halifax 35, Madrid 75: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Halifax 38, Madrid 50: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Halifax 46, Madrid 77: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Halifax 28, Madrid 36: Madrid leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Halifax and Madrid.

Your match

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

Halifax
45match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Halifax in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
101 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HalifaxMadrid

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Halifax: 1991-2020 normals, Shearwater Airport (6 km from centre). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHalifaxMadrid
Official languageFrench, EnglishSpanish
CurrencyCanadian Dollar (CAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-4, UTC-3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation28 m663 m
Main airportHalifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)26 km from centre40 non-stop destinationsAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureHalifaxMadrid
City population440,0723,506,730
People per km²805,801
Museums within 10 km1588
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km04
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Halifax or Madrid somewhere new.

Browse every destination

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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.