London or Rotterdam?
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 beaches & swimming and 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 evenings that run late and a centre where the notable places sit close enough to walk between, alongside the widest choice of restaurants and museums and a warmer, drier summer.
Choose Rotterdam if you want the coast within reach, with sea at 19°C in August, more theme parks for children and a smaller centre where the museums and bars are grouped tightly together.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Rotterdam leads by 37 points.37
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 37 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 47 | 22 |
| Coast distance | 43 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | — | 24 km |
Places to eat. London leads by 16 points.16
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 72 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 3,317 | 862 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 40 | 46 |
Museums & heritage. London leads by 12 points.12
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 148 | 41 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 49 | 20 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 33 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
Nightlife. London leads by 46 points.46
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 5,327 | 542 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,443 | 378 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 46 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 312 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. Rotterdam leads by 2 points.2
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 14 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 97 | 79 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 61 hectares |
Good for families. London leads by 13 points.13
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 62 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 85 | 27 |
| Park area within 2 km | 84 hectares | 61 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 8 |
Sights concentration. London leads by 38 points.38
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 649 | 74 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Rotterdam leads by 4 points.4
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 58 |
| Price level global | 84.9 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | — | €181 |
Year-round weather. London leads by 7 points.7
| London | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 8.2 °C to 23.8 °C | 6.2 °C to 22.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 67 mm | 42 mm to 85 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
London's evenings are the clear draw: many times as many bars and clubs as Rotterdam, though only about half of them sit near the centre. The centre itself holds many times more notable places within walking distance, so a day on foot covers far more ground.
Rotterdam's edge is the water: sea that reaches 19°C in August, where London records 47 beaches nearby against 22 but no sea temperature at all. What nightlife Rotterdam has is mostly near the centre, walkable in an evening.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a base for countryside. Around London 16% of the land is protected, around Rotterdam 10%, and both rely on parks near the centre rather than wilderness.
They sit close on climate too: mild rather than warm, London 8-24°C across the year and Rotterdam 6-22°C, with rain in every month, and on the value measure the data uses they are nearly level.
Which traveller are you?
For a long weekend of eating and going out, London: many times as many bars and clubs, and the largest concentration of restaurants near the centre, though half its nightlife lies outside the middle and needs transport.
For families it depends on the trip. London has about three times as many attractions near the centre and more park space; Rotterdam counters with 8 theme parks within reach against London's 3 and sea at 19°C in August.
For a museum-led visit with short walks, Rotterdam: fewer museums, but tightly grouped around the centre, and more UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach. London wins on sheer number if you are willing to cross the city.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily spending figure for London at all, so the two cannot be ranked on price in either direction; what stands in for value is a different measure both cities have, and it says nothing about what a day will cost.
The swimming picture is thinner than the beach counts suggest. London has 47 beaches nearby, more than Rotterdam, yet no sea temperature is recorded for it, and Rotterdam's water peaks at 19°C in its wettest month. Neither reaches 21°C in any month.
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). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).
London's warm stretch runs longer and drier: July and August reach 23-24°C with monthly rain near 50mm, and September still holds 20°C. March is its driest month, good for museums without summer crowds.
Rotterdam is better in late spring: April is its driest month, and by June highs reach 20°C. Its high summer is also its wettest stretch, near 85mm, so the rain arrives exactly when the warmth does; winter in both is dark and damp.
Getting there
| Flying from | London | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| MadridMAD | 2 h 10 m €124-216 LHR · 23 km | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 47 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 5 m €92-144 LHR · 23 km | 1 h 10 m €178-300 AMS · 47 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 10 m €518-651 1 stop LHR · 23 km | 7 h 35 m €512-556 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| DublinDUB | 1 h 10 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 1 h 35 m €69-96 AMS · 47 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 50 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 1 h 25 m €171-212 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 55 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 1 h 15 m €145-187 AMS · 47 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 7 h 10 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 2 h 25 m no fares LHR · 23 km | 2 h 0 m €156-208 AMS · 47 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 11 h 30 m €665-831 1 stop LHR · 23 km | 11 h 10 m no fares AMS · 47 km |
| CancunCUN | 10 h 5 m no fares LGW · 40 km | 10 h 25 m no fares AMS · 47 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 | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 10 m |
| Main airport | London Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre220 non-stop destinations | Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre45 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 8 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | London | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,799,728 | 664,311 |
| People per km² | 5,598 | 2,080 |
| Museums within 10 km | 215 | 40 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 116 | 77 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Rotterdam somewhere new.