VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

London or Milan?

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 London for

  • families
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Milan for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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. London 25, Milan 20: London leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Milan 78: London leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Milan 78: London leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Milan 66: London leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Milan 65: Milan leads by 8 points.
Day trips. London 90, Milan 91: Milan leads by 1 points.
Good for families. London 82, Milan 55: London leads by 27 points.
Getting around. London 85, Milan 79: London leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Milan 92: London leads by 3 points.
Affordability. London 15, Milan 33: Milan leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Milan 82: London leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Milan 42: Milan leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Milan.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on families and nightlife with your weighting.

Milan
65match

Wins on prices 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.

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LondonMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonMilan
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation4 m138 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonMilan
City population8,799,7281,354,196
People per km²5,5987,453
Museums within 10 km21688
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Milan 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.