VacationSelector
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Hamburg or New York?

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

  • prices
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose New York for

  • food and drink
  • shopping
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Hamburg 55, New York 92: New York leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Hamburg 62, New York 89: New York leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Hamburg 76, New York 97: New York leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hamburg 52, New York 55: New York leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Hamburg 70, New York 68: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Hamburg 74, New York 70: Hamburg leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Hamburg 80, New York 82: New York leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Hamburg 65, New York 97: New York leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Hamburg 38, New York 12: Hamburg leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hamburg 80, New York 99: New York leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hamburg 44, New York 42: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hamburg and New York.

Your match

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

Hamburg
60match

Wins on prices and families with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on food and drink 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.

Hamburg in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
HamburgNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHamburgNew York
Official languageGerman-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation6 m25 m
Main airportHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHamburgNew York
City population1,869,4738,804,190
People per km²2,4767,256
Museums within 10 km77157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or New York 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.