VacationSelector
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Hamburg or Milan?

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 Hamburg for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Milan for

  • shopping
  • food and drink
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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. Hamburg 28, Milan 20: Hamburg leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Hamburg 55, Milan 78: Milan leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Hamburg 62, Milan 78: Milan leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Hamburg 76, Milan 66: Hamburg leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hamburg 52, Milan 65: Milan leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Hamburg 70, Milan 91: Milan leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Hamburg 74, Milan 55: Hamburg leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Hamburg 80, Milan 79: Hamburg leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Hamburg 65, Milan 92: Milan leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Hamburg 38, Milan 33: Hamburg leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hamburg 80, Milan 82: Milan leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hamburg 44, Milan 42: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hamburg and Milan.

Your match

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

Hamburg
60match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hamburg in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
HamburgMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHamburgMilan
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m138 m
Main airportHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHamburgMilan
City population1,869,4731,354,196
People per km²2,4767,453
Museums within 10 km7788
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km14

Where else could you go?

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