Ljubljana or Vienna?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on value for money and nature & day trips with your weighting.
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, with its museums packed close to the centre, warmer summer afternoons and more protected countryside within day-trip range.
Choose Vienna if you are here for museums, eating out and late nights: far more of all three, plus theme parks and attractions for children, and drier months through the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Ljubljana and Vienna are level on 0.
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 10 | 22 |
| Coast distance | 72 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Vienna leads by 22 points.22
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 292 | 1,617 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 37 |
Museums & heritage. Vienna leads by 26 points.26
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 81 |
| Museums within 10 km | 26 | 192 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 23 | 110 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 88 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
Nightlife. Vienna leads by 29 points.29
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 458 | 1,948 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 284 | 1,089 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 24 | 108 |
Nature & day trips. Ljubljana leads by 8 points.8
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 32 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 13 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 5 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 93 hectares |
Good for families. Vienna leads by 31 points.31
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 69 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 12 | 46 |
| Park area within 2 km | 75 hectares | 93 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Vienna leads by 17 points.17
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 75 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 109 | 287 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Ljubljana leads by 13 points.13
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 59 |
| Price level global | 59.6 | 76.9 |
| Daily budget | €131 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Vienna leads by 5 points.5
| Ljubljana | Vienna | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.1 °C to 27.9 °C | 3.3 °C to 26.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 67 mm to 159 mm | 38 mm to 80 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 1 |
Where they differ
Ljubljana is the greener base: 13% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Vienna, and its days run slightly warmer through the year, 4-28°C against 3-27°C. Its museums sit tightly around the centre, so little walking is needed.
Vienna has many times as many museums, restaurants and places to drink, roughly three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and 4 theme parks where Ljubljana has none. Its clubs are more scattered, with about half near the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place to swim. There are inland beaches near both, 22 around Vienna and 10 around Ljubljana, but no month brings water to 21°C or more, so bathing is at best a warm-afternoon extra.
The two also share a similar climate, warmest in the same month, coldest in the same month, and daytime highs that differ by about 1°C. Neither has much range for day trips, though each has 3 UNESCO-listed places within reach.
Which traveller are you?
Museum-minded travellers should go to Vienna: many times as many museums, and about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre. Ljubljana's smaller set is at least tightly clustered, which suits a single day.
Families are better served in Vienna, with roughly three times as many attractions near the centre, more park space and 4 theme parks within reach; Ljubljana has none of the latter and fewer attractions for children.
Walkers and day-trippers lean to Ljubljana, where 13% of the surrounding land is protected against 4% around Vienna, and summer afternoons run a touch warmer. Both, though, are short on day-trip range.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €131 and €160, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A capital can sit well above its country's average, by more than the gap between the two, so this tells you little about what either trip will actually cost.
Warm months also read better than they feel. Ljubljana's warmest stretch is also its wettest, at 121-126mm across the summer, and no month there is dry. And the beach counts are inland water: neither city has a month at 21°C or more, so swimming is incidental in both.
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). Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre).
Ljubljana is at its best from June to August, with highs of 26-28°C. Rain is the catch: those months bring 121-126mm, and September, still usable, is the wettest of the year at 159mm.
Vienna's summer is close behind at 25-27°C, and noticeably drier at 70-78mm. Either side of it, April at 17°C with 42mm is drier than any month Ljubljana sees all year, which makes Vienna the stronger pick for a spring or autumn break.
Getting there
| Flying from | Ljubljana | Vienna |
|---|---|---|
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 10 m no fares TRS · 84 km | 1 h 35 m €84-160 VIE · 18 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 5 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 2 h 10 m €105-189 1 stop VIE · 18 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 10 m €188-190 LJU · 20 km | 2 h 5 m €121-285 VIE · 18 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 25 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 25 m €143-152 VIE · 18 km |
| ZurichZRH | 1 h 15 m no fares LJU · 20 km | 1 h 25 m €170-237 1 stop VIE · 18 km |
| DubrovnikDBV | 1 h 10 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 1 h 25 m no fares VIE · 18 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 45 m €139-178 1 stop LJU · 20 km | 1 h 55 m €112-162 VIE · 18 km |
| SplitSPU | 55 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 1 h 15 m no fares VIE · 18 km |
| DohaDOH | 5 h 15 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 5 h 20 m no fares VIE · 18 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 9 h 0 m no fares ZAG · 126 km | 8 h 50 m no fares VIE · 18 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 | Vienna |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Slovene | German, Austrian Sign Language |
| 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 | 309 m | 151 m |
| Main airport | Ljubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)20 km from centre28 non-stop destinations | Vienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre204 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 21 days | 16 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Ljubljana | Vienna |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 284,293 | 2,028,289 |
| People per km² | 1,736 | 4,890 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 152 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 63 | 113 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ljubljana or Vienna somewhere new.