Ljubljana 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 good for families and nightlife 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 Ljubljana if you want a small capital you can cross on foot, warmer summer afternoons reaching 28°C, and day trips that take in three UNESCO-listed places.
Choose Prague if you want the wider choice of restaurants, museums and late bars in one central area, plus the theme parks and park space that make it the easier trip with children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Ljubljana and Prague are level on 0.
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 10 | 7 |
| Coast distance | 72 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Prague leads by 20 points.20
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 292 | 1,866 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Prague leads by 17 points.17
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 26 | 138 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 100 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 88 | 72 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Prague leads by 32 points.32
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 77 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 458 | 2,248 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 284 | 1,457 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 65 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 24 | 123 |
Nature & day trips. Prague leads by 5 points.5
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 45 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 5 | 8 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 183 hectares |
Good for families. Prague leads by 37 points.37
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 183 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Prague leads by 18 points.18
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 109 | 310 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Prague leads by 3 points.3
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 75 |
| Price level global | 59.6 | 55.2 |
| Daily budget | €131 | €107 |
Year-round weather. Prague leads by 5 points.5
| Ljubljana | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C | 2.2 °C to 25.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 67 mm to 159 mm | 22 mm to 80 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 7 |
Where they differ
Ljubljana offers a somewhat wider range of kitchens, so the choice of cuisines is broader than the number of restaurants suggests. It also runs warmer through the year, 4-28°C against 2-25°C, and puts 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Prague's 1.
Prague has many times as many restaurants near the centre, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central. For families it adds far more attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space, and 3 theme parks within reach where Ljubljana has none.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Ljubljana has 10 beaches nearby and Prague 7, all inland water, and neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so a swim is an incidental extra rather than a reason to go.
Beyond that, the countryside around each is similarly protected, 13% of the land around Ljubljana and 12% around Prague, and both follow the same seasonal shape, with cold winters and warm summers.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone building a trip around evenings out should take Prague. It has many times as many bars and clubs as Ljubljana, and most sit near the centre, so a single walkable area covers the whole night.
Families are better served in Prague as well: far more attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space, and 3 theme parks within reach where Ljubljana has none.
Travellers who want a compact base with countryside close by fit Ljubljana. Around 13% of the surrounding land is protected, three UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach, and summer afternoons run warmer, up to 28°C.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget, €131 for Slovenia and €107 for Czechia, is a national estimate for restaurants and hotels, not a measurement of either city. Capitals and heavily visited cities can sit far from their own country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so it says little about which trip costs more.
The beaches counted near both are inland water, and neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, so neither suits a swimming trip. Prague's advantages are also counted near the centre, which is where summer crowds concentrate.
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. Ljubljana: 1991-2020 normals, Ljubljana / Bezigrad (1.9 km from centre). Prague: 1991-2020 normals, Praha-Libus (8.1 km from centre).
Ljubljana is at its best from June to August, with highs of 26-28°C, though rain runs 121-126mm through those months, and September stays warm but is the wettest of all at 159mm.
Prague is the drier choice, with seven months at 40mm or less where Ljubljana has none. That widens the useful season into spring and early autumn: September holds near 20°C with 44mm. Summer highs reach 25°C, cooler than Ljubljana but with far less rain falling on them.
Getting there
| Flying from | Ljubljana | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km | 1 h 45 m €62-97 PRG · 12 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 55 m €63-104 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km | 2 h 25 m €118-136 PRG · 12 km |
| DubrovnikDBV | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 1 h 45 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 45 m €139-178 1 stop LJU · 20 km | 1 h 40 m €86-113 PRG · 12 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 10 m €126-144 PRG · 12 km |
| SplitSPU | 55 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 1 h 35 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 5 h 45 m €374-528 2 stops LJU · 20 km | 5 h 55 m €276-321 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 9 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 8 h 30 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 10 h 35 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 10 h 20 m no fares 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 | Ljubljana | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Slovene | 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 | 309 m | 235 m |
| Main airport | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations | Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG)12 km from centre175 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 21 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ljubljana | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 284,293 | 1,397,880 |
| People per km² | 1,736 | 2,817 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 88 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 63 | 89 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ljubljana or Prague somewhere new.