VacationSelector
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Hamburg or St. Pete Beach?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Hamburg 55, St. Pete Beach 40: Hamburg leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Hamburg 62, St. Pete Beach 18: Hamburg leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Hamburg 76, St. Pete Beach 28: Hamburg leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hamburg 52, St. Pete Beach 57: St. Pete Beach leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Hamburg 70, St. Pete Beach 58: Hamburg leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Hamburg 74, St. Pete Beach 72: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Hamburg 80, St. Pete Beach 30: Hamburg leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Hamburg 65, St. Pete Beach 20: Hamburg leads by 45 points.
Affordability. Hamburg 38, St. Pete Beach 32: Hamburg leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hamburg 80, St. Pete Beach 20: Hamburg leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hamburg 44, St. Pete Beach 42: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hamburg and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Hamburg
Best match
60match

Wins on live music and the arts and getting around with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors 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

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HamburgSt. Pete Beach

Where the figures come from

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHamburgSt. Pete Beach
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 m2 m
Main airportHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureHamburgSt. Pete Beach
City population1,869,4738,879
People per km²2,476173
Museums within 10 km772
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or St. Pete Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.