Hamburg or Berlin?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage 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 Berlin if you want the denser city: many more notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly twice the museums, and drinking spots spread across districts rather than clustered. With children, it also has 5 theme parks within reach.
Choose Hamburg if you prefer a smaller city where the eating is more varied and the night out sits within one walkable area.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Hamburg and Berlin are level on 0.
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 17 |
| Coast distance | 22 km | 142 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Hamburg leads by 3 points.3
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,150 | 1,117 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Berlin leads by 19 points.19
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 79 |
| Museums within 10 km | 94 | 200 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 50 | 81 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 53 | 41 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
Nightlife. Berlin leads by 8 points.8
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 76 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,339 | 2,114 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 834 | 719 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 34 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 119 | 135 |
Nature & day trips. Berlin leads by 9 points.9
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 49 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 20 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 10 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 99 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 141 hectares |
Good for families. Berlin leads by 16 points.16
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 76 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 141 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Berlin leads by 25 points.25
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 84 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 118 | 486 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Hamburg and Berlin are level on 60.
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Berlin leads by 5 points.5
| Hamburg | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 60 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.3 °C to 23.2 °C | 3.7 °C to 25 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 39 mm to 82 mm | 29 mm to 76 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 3 |
Where they differ
Berlin packs many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, so more of a short trip is spent on foot. It has about twice the museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Hamburg's 1. For families, it offers twice the park space near the centre and 5 theme parks within reach against 1.
Hamburg's advantage is at the table: a similar number of restaurants near the centre, but a wider range of kitchens. Its bars and clubs sit mostly near the centre, so evenings need less crossing town.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a swimming destination. Berlin counts 17 beaches nearby and Hamburg 16, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so the water is a bonus rather than a reason to book.
They are also close on eating and on climate: a comparable number of restaurants near the centre in each, and closely matched years of weather, both bottoming out near 4°C in winter and peaking in July, with similar annual sunshine.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling for museums and city history should take Berlin: about twice as many museums as Hamburg, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 1, enough to fill several days without repetition.
Families are better served in Berlin too: more attractions near the centre, twice as much park space for breaks between them, and 5 theme parks within reach where Hamburg has 1.
A traveller who cares most about eating well and one good night out will find Hamburg simpler: a wider range of kitchens, with bars and clubs concentrated near the centre rather than scattered across districts as Berlin's are.
What the numbers don't tell you
Treat the value comparison as empty. It is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing about which of these two costs more, and the €163 a day beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city.
The beach counts flatter both: 17 nearby beaches and 16 sound promising, but neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more. Likewise, the warmest months are also the wettest in each, so warmth and dry days do not arrive together here.
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. Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre). Berlin: 1991-2020 normals, Berlin / Alexanderplatz (0.9 km from centre).
Berlin is the warmer of the two from April onward, peaking at 25°C in July and August. July is also its wettest month at 76mm, so September, still near 20°C and considerably drier, suits a walking-heavy trip better than midsummer.
Hamburg's warm window is the same high summer, but it tops out at 23°C and stays wetter through it, at 77-82mm at the peak. Its driest month by a clear margin is April, at 39mm, and even then Berlin is the drier of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | Hamburg | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €89-225 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 50 m €65-126 BER · 19 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 20 m €195-270 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 15 m €178-321 BER · 19 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 1 h 10 m €137-154 BER · 19 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €178-237 HAM · 9 km | 2 h 40 m €133-143 BER · 19 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 35 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 2 h 35 m no fares BER · 19 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 30 m €216-237 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 25 m €149-251 BER · 19 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m €155-168 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 40 m €102-136 BER · 19 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 35 m €162-200 HAM · 9 km | 3 h 15 m €145-185 BER · 19 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €167-214 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 15 m €187-215 1 stop BER · 19 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 25 m €357-416 HAM · 9 km | 6 h 5 m no fares BER · 19 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 | Hamburg | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | German |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 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 | 6 m | 34 m |
| Main airport | Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre119 non-stop destinations | Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)19 km from centre161 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Hamburg | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,910,160 | 3,782,202 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 4,244 |
| Museums within 10 km | 77 | 158 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 83 | 86 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or Berlin somewhere new.