Hamburg or Prague?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
Wins on sights concentration and good for families 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 you want a wider spread of kitchens, more protected countryside around the city, and beaches nearby, though without a sea warm enough to swim in.
Choose Prague if you want the compact trip: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, more museums close in, twice the park space and 3 theme parks against Hamburg's 1.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Hamburg and Prague are level on 0.
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 7 |
| Coast distance | 22 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Prague leads by 2 points.2
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,150 | 1,866 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Prague leads by 12 points.12
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 94 | 138 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 50 | 100 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 53 | 72 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Prague leads by 9 points.9
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 77 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,339 | 2,248 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 834 | 1,457 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 65 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 119 | 123 |
Nature & day trips. Prague leads by 5 points.5
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 45 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 10 | 8 |
| Land share of disc % | 99 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 183 hectares |
Good for families. Prague leads by 15 points.15
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 183 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Prague leads by 17 points.17
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 118 | 310 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Prague leads by 15 points.15
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 75 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 55.2 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €107 |
Year-round weather. Prague leads by 6 points.6
| Hamburg | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.3 °C to 23.2 °C | 2.2 °C to 25.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 39 mm to 82 mm | 22 mm to 80 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 7 |
Where they differ
Hamburg's strengths are spread out rather than packed in: a somewhat wider range of kitchens, about as many nightclubs as Prague, and more protected land around the city, 14% against 12%.
Prague is the more concentrated trip, with around three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly twice as many restaurants and twice as many bars near the centre, twice as much park space, and 3 theme parks within reach against Hamburg's 1. It is also drier through the year, with 7 months at 40mm of rain or less against Hamburg's 1.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Hamburg has 16 beaches nearby and Prague 7, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so water is not what either trip is about.
Both also eat well, one through the sheer number of restaurants near the centre, the other through breadth of kitchens. Each has 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, modest protected countryside around it, and a short warm peak in July and August.
Which traveller are you?
A short city break on foot points to Prague: notable places sit about three times as thick within walking distance of the centre, and its museums cluster tightly there, so days need less planning and less transport.
Families are better served in Prague too, with more tourist attractions near the centre, roughly twice as much park space for the gaps between them, and 3 theme parks within reach against Hamburg's 1.
If you travel to eat and drink, the choice splits. Prague has far more restaurants and bars close to the centre; Hamburg answers with a wider range of kitchens and a comparable number of nightclubs.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €163 in Hamburg's country and €107 in Prague's, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of either city. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than these two figures sit from each other, so they say little about what either trip will cost you.
Warm months and dry months are not the same months. Hamburg's warmest are also its wettest, at 77-82mm in July and August, while Prague's driest weeks are its coldest, 2-5°C in December and January. And the beaches near Hamburg come without a swimmable sea.
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). Prague: 1991-2020 normals, Praha-Libus (8.1 km from centre).
Hamburg is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 23°C, slightly gentler than Prague's 25°C, but those are also its wettest months at 77-82mm, and no month there falls below 39mm.
Prague is the better pick across a longer season. April to June brings highs of 16-23°C with only 27mm in April, and September holds 20°C with 44mm. Its winters are dry but cold, 2-5°C in December and January.
Getting there
| Flying from | Hamburg | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €89-225 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 55 m €63-104 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 1 h 10 m €126-144 PRG · 12 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 35 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 2 h 25 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 20 m €195-270 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 0 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €178-237 HAM · 9 km | 2 h 25 m €118-136 PRG · 12 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 35 m €162-200 HAM · 9 km | 3 h 0 m €179-197 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 30 m €155-168 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 40 m €86-113 PRG · 12 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 25 m €357-416 HAM · 9 km | 5 h 55 m €276-321 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 25 m €127-153 HAM · 9 km | 2 h 15 m €111-155 PRG · 12 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 4 h 20 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 3 h 45 m €220-244 1 stop PRG · 12 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 | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | Czech |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Czech Koruna (CZK) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 235 m |
| Main airport | Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre119 non-stop destinations | Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG)12 km from centre175 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Hamburg | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,910,160 | 1,397,880 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 2,817 |
| Museums within 10 km | 77 | 88 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 83 | 89 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or Prague somewhere new.