Hamburg or Stuttgart?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on nightlife and good for families 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 trip is mostly about the city itself: a wider range of places to eat, far more bars and clubs, and more to see within walking distance of the centre.
Choose Stuttgart if you want a base for days out, with 51% of the surrounding land protected, and slightly warmer, drier weather, highs of 6-26°C against Hamburg's 4-23°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Hamburg and Stuttgart are level on 0.
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 3 |
| Coast distance | 22 km | 476 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Hamburg leads by 14 points.14
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 59 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,150 | 575 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Hamburg leads by 4 points.4
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 56 |
| Museums within 10 km | 94 | 65 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 50 | 21 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 53 | 32 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
Nightlife. Hamburg leads by 19 points.19
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 68 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,339 | 524 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 834 | 374 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 119 | 53 |
Nature & day trips. Stuttgart leads by 40 points.40
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 80 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 51 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 10 | 31 |
| Land share of disc % | 99 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 78 hectares |
Good for families. Hamburg leads by 15 points.15
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 45 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 40 | 11 |
| Park area within 2 km | 89 hectares | 78 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Hamburg leads by 15 points.15
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 44 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 118 | 50 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Hamburg and Stuttgart are level on 60.
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Stuttgart leads by 8 points.8
| Hamburg | Stuttgart | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.3 °C to 23.2 °C | 5.6 °C to 25.9 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 39 mm to 82 mm | 33 mm to 79 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 3 |
Where they differ
Hamburg is the denser city at street level: about twice as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly three times as many tourist attractions, and about twice as many restaurants, across a wider range of kitchens. For evenings out it has around three times as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, most of them central.
Stuttgart's advantage lies outside it: 51% of the surrounding land is protected against 14% around Hamburg, so walking country starts close by, though central park space is similar.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Beaches exist within reach of both, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so water is incidental to a trip to either.
Museums and heritage land close together: Hamburg holds somewhat more museums and keeps them tightly around the centre, while Stuttgart has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Hamburg's 1. The weather follows the same pattern in both, with winter highs of 4-6°C and warm, similar high summers.
Which traveller are you?
Someone travelling for food and evenings out should take Hamburg: more restaurants and a wider range of kitchens near the centre, plus far more bars and clubs, nearly all reachable on foot.
Walkers and day-trippers are better served by Stuttgart: 51% of the land around it is protected, and 3 UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach against Hamburg's 1, so a car or train opens up the region.
Families with young children will find more to fill days in Hamburg, with far more attractions near the centre; Stuttgart counters with 2 theme parks within reach against Hamburg's 1.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. That figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, and the €163 daily budget beside it is one estimate for the country rather than a measurement of either city. Neither is the cheaper trip on this evidence.
Beach counts also mislead here. Hamburg has more of them nearby, but neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so a beach count does not mean a swimming trip. The same applies to summer warmth, which in Hamburg arrives with its heaviest rain, 77-82mm in the two warmest months.
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). Stuttgart: 1991-2020 normals, Stuttgart / Neckartal (2.8 km from centre).
Stuttgart holds up across a longer season. June to August runs 24-26°C, and the shoulders are usable: April reaches 16°C on just 37mm of rain. Its wettest stretch is late spring into midsummer.
Hamburg is warmest in July and August at 23°C, but those are also its wettest months at 77-82mm. Its driest month brings 39mm and only reaches 14°C, and winter sits at 4-5°C, so a visit outside summer is a city visit rather than an outdoor one.
Getting there
| Flying from | Hamburg | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 0 m €178-237 HAM · 9 km | 2 h 40 m €139-291 STR · 10 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 35 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 2 h 0 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 20 m €195-270 HAM · 9 km | 55 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 50 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 35 m €162-200 HAM · 9 km | 3 h 15 m €194-322 1 stop STR · 10 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 35 m €89-225 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 35 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 35 m €167-214 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 1 h 20 m €174-248 STR · 10 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 25 m €127-153 HAM · 9 km | 1 h 50 m €111-165 STR · 10 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 30 m €216-237 1 stop HAM · 9 km | 50 m no fares STR · 10 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 50 m no fares HAM · 9 km | 4 h 25 m no fares STR · 10 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 | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 245 m |
| Main airport | Hamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre119 non-stop destinations | Stuttgart Airport (STR)10 km from centre121 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 10 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Hamburg | Stuttgart |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 1,910,160 | 633,484 |
| People per km² | 2,530 | 3,054 |
| Museums within 10 km | 77 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 83 | 59 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or Stuttgart somewhere new.