Hamburg or Nuremberg?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather 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 Hamburg if the evening is the point: far more bars and clubs, about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and a wider choice of restaurants and museums.
Choose Nuremberg if you would rather spend your days outside the city and want a warmer, drier summer, with 42% of the surrounding land protected and highs reaching 25°C at the peak.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Hamburg and Nuremberg are level on 0.
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 6 |
| Coast distance | 22 km | 430 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Hamburg leads by 9 points.9
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 64 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,150 | 700 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Hamburg leads by 8 points.8
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 52 |
| Museums within 10 km | 94 | 53 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 50 | 29 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 53 | 55 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Hamburg leads by 20 points.20
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 48 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,339 | 523 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 834 | 427 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 119 | 36 |
Nature & day trips. Nuremberg leads by 9 points.9
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 49 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 42 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 10 | 41 |
| Land share of disc % | 99 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 31 hectares |
Good for families. Hamburg leads by 1 points.1
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 59 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 59 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 31 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Hamburg leads by 15 points.15
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 118 | 50 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Hamburg and Nuremberg are level on 60.
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Nuremberg leads by 5 points.5
| Hamburg | Nuremberg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 60 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.3 °C to 23.2 °C | 3.5 °C to 25.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 39 mm to 82 mm | 33 mm to 77 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 4 |
Where they differ
Hamburg has roughly three times as many places to drink and as many nightclubs, most near the centre. It also packs about twice as many notable places into walking distance, twice as many restaurants with a broader spread of kitchens, and twice as many museums.
Nuremberg's advantage lies beyond the streets: 42% of the land around it is protected against 14% around Hamburg, so day trips out of town come more easily, though Hamburg keeps about three times as much park space near its own centre.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a place to swim. Hamburg has 16 beaches nearby to Nuremberg's 6, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so water is not a reason to choose between them.
They are also close on family travel and on the shape of the year. Nuremberg has more theme parks within reach and more attractions near the centre; Hamburg has far more park space. Both share the same cold start to the year, at 4°C.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who plans around evenings and walking should take Hamburg: the wider choice of bars and clubs by a clear margin, twice the notable places within walking distance, and twice the restaurants, across a broader spread of kitchens.
Families are close to a coin toss. Nuremberg has 2 theme parks within reach against Hamburg's 1, plus more attractions near the centre; Hamburg answers with far more park space close to the middle.
Anyone who wants days out of town should choose Nuremberg: 42% of the surrounding land is protected, and summer highs of 25°C with less rain make walking plans more dependable.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: it is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so nothing here says either city is cheaper. The €163 daily figure beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of Hamburg or Nuremberg, and your own costs will turn on choices the data does not see.
Beach counts mislead too. Hamburg's 16 beaches sit beside water that never reaches 21°C in any month, so they read as walking and picnic spots rather than swimming. And Nuremberg's warmest, driest weeks are exactly the ones everyone else picks, so its strongest window is also its busiest.
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). Nuremberg: 1991-2020 normals, Nuernberg (5.5 km from centre).
Hamburg's warmest months, July and August at 23°C, are also its wettest, at 77-82mm, so rain gear belongs in the bag whichever summer week you choose; only April falls below 40mm, and it is a cool month to visit.
Nuremberg is warmer and drier across the same calendar, reaching 25°C at the peak and holding to 60mm in August. Spring is where the two part most clearly, and the difference is dryness more than heat: Nuremberg's April sits at 33mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Hamburg | Nuremberg |
|---|---|---|
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 35 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 2 h 10 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 35 m €162-200 HAM · 9 km | 3 h 10 m €206-349 1 stop NUE · 5 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €178-237 HAM · 9 km | 2 h 35 m €139-243 NUE · 5 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 55 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €89-225 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 40 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 5 m €337-378 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 20 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 50 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 4 h 20 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m €155-168 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 25 m no fares NUE · 5 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 30 m €216-237 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 0 m no fares MUC · 133 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €167-214 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 5 m €183-262 1 stop MUC · 133 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 2026-09 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 | Nuremberg |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 209 m |
| Main airport | Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre119 non-stop destinations | Nuremberg Airport (NUE)5 km from centre54 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Hamburg | Nuremberg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,910,160 | 529,508 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 2,839 |
| Museums within 10 km | 77 | 50 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 83 | 71 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or Nuremberg somewhere new.