London or Maastricht?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on value for money 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 London if you want eating out, going out and sightseeing all within reach of one another: far more restaurants, bars and notable places near the centre, and more to keep children occupied.
Choose Maastricht if you want a small place where the museums and bars are a short walk apart, with more protected countryside around it and 5 theme parks within reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. London and Maastricht are level on 0.
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 47 | 6 |
| Coast distance | 43 km | 118 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. London leads by 40 points.40
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 48 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 3,317 | 338 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 22 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 19 points.19
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 53 |
| Museums within 10 km | 148 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 49 | 13 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 33 | 57 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
Nightlife. London leads by 65 points.65
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 30 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 5,327 | 223 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,443 | 182 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 46 | 82 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 312 | 13 |
Nature & day trips. London leads by 3 points.3
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 14 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 97 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 33 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 29 points.29
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 46 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 85 | 15 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 33 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 5 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 53 points.53
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 36 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 649 | 32 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Maastricht leads by 4 points.4
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 58 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | — | €181 |
Year-round weather. London leads by 4 points.4
| London | Maastricht | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 59 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C | 5.7 °C to 23.8 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 67 mm | 41 mm to 84 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
London has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a far wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance. Park space near the centre is roughly three times Maastricht's.
Maastricht is compact: its museums and most of its bars sit close to the centre, so less of the day goes on getting about. It has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against London's 4, 5 theme parks against 3, and 19% protected land around it against 16%.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. London has 47 beaches nearby and Maastricht 6, but neither sees a month of sea at 21°C or more, so neither works for swimming.
They are close on weather and on countryside, too. Both peak at 24°C in high summer and cool off through the winter, and neither is surrounded by much more protected land than the other. They also land close on value, and both reward a trip planned around the town itself.
Which traveller are you?
Someone after food and late nights should go to London: many times as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, about half of them central.
Families are better served in London, with far more attractions and about three times as much park space near the centre, though Maastricht answers with 5 theme parks within reach against London's 3.
A walker who wants heritage without transport should pick Maastricht: its museums sit tightly around the centre, 5 UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach, and 19% of the surrounding land is protected.
What the numbers don't tell you
The dataset carries a daily budget for Maastricht, about €181 a day, and no cost figure of any kind for London, so the two cannot be set against each other on price. Read the value ranking as an indicator built from other evidence, not as proof that one trip costs less than the other.
A count of 47 beaches near London says little about swimming: neither city reaches a month of sea at 21°C or more. And Maastricht's warmest weeks are also its wettest, 84mm in August, so a good month there is not a dry one.
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. London: 1991-2020 normals, London Heathrow Airport (22.5 km from centre). Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre).
London is the steadier pick across spring and early summer: highs rise to 24°C by July, and spring is its driest stretch, near 38-46mm a month. It also holds the milder edge in winter, 8°C against 6°C in January.
Maastricht is at its best in late spring, when it matches London for warmth and April is its driest month at 41mm. Midsummer there is wetter, 73-84mm across July and August, so the warm weeks come with more rain than London's.
Getting there
| Flying from | London | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km | 7 h 35 m no fares BRU · 85 km |
| FaroFAO | 2 h 40 m no fares LGW · 40 km | 2 h 55 m €223 EIN · 70 km |
| IbizaIBZ | 2 h 15 m no fares LGW · 40 km | 2 h 20 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 45 m €83-138 LGW · 40 km | 1 h 30 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 2 h 0 m €61-144 LGW · 40 km | 2 h 0 m €148-192 1 stop EIN · 70 km |
| BudapestBUD | 2 h 20 m no fares STN · 49 km | 1 h 55 m €106-231 EIN · 70 km |
| ValenciaVLC | 2 h 10 m no fares LGW · 40 km | 2 h 20 m €155 EIN · 70 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 20 m €128-183 1 stop LGW · 40 km | 3 h 35 m no fares EIN · 70 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 15 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 10 h 0 m no fares BRU · 85 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 11 h 50 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 12 h 0 m no fares BRU · 85 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 | London | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | Dutch |
| Currency | Pound Sterling (GBP) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | G230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 or 999 | 112 or 911 |
| Elevation | 4 m | 49 m |
| Main airport | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations | Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | London | Maastricht |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,799,728 | 120,227 |
| People per km² | 5,598 | 2,000 |
| Museums within 10 km | 215 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 116 | 33 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Maastricht somewhere new.