VacationSelector
The Blue Mosque, Istanbul
IstanbulThe Blue Mosque
The harbour front with the church tower above the houses, Saint-Tropez
Saint-TropezThe harbour front with the church tower above the houses

Photos: Istanbul by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Saint-Tropez by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Istanbul or Saint-Tropez?

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 Istanbul for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Saint-Tropez for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Saint-Tropez’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. Istanbul 45, Saint-Tropez 82: Saint-Tropez leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Istanbul 87, Saint-Tropez 48: Istanbul leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Istanbul 90, Saint-Tropez 35: Istanbul leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Istanbul 77, Saint-Tropez 60: Istanbul leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Istanbul 52, Saint-Tropez 72: Saint-Tropez leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Istanbul 55, Saint-Tropez 57: Saint-Tropez leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Istanbul 55, Saint-Tropez 42: Istanbul leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Istanbul 62, Saint-Tropez 32: Istanbul leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Istanbul 86, Saint-Tropez 64: Istanbul leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Istanbul 60, Saint-Tropez 8: Istanbul leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Istanbul 62, Saint-Tropez 18: Istanbul leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Istanbul 75, Saint-Tropez 35: Istanbul leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Istanbul and Saint-Tropez.

Your match

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

Istanbul
Best match
67match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Saint-Tropez
46match

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.

Istanbul in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
23 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Saint-Tropez in July

32 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
10 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
23 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
IstanbulSaint-Tropez

Where the figures come from

Saint-Tropez 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.

Saint-Tropez's sunshine is measured 62 km from the centre, at Nice.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Istanbul: 1991-2020 normals, Istanbul / Goztepe (9.9 km from centre). Saint-Tropez: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Le Luc (24.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureIstanbulSaint-Tropez
Official languageTurkishFrench
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m0 m
Main airportİstanbul Airport (IST)36 km from centre343 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)64 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureIstanbulSaint-Tropez
City population15,655,9243,582
People per km²2,930320
Museums within 10 km734
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Istanbul or Saint-Tropez 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.