Maastricht or Strasbourg?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat 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 Maastricht if you are travelling with children or building the trip around heritage: more attractions close to the centre, 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach and 5 theme parks against Strasbourg's 1.
Choose Strasbourg if you want a compact centre with far more to see on foot, a wider choice of kitchens, and more protected countryside for days out.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Maastricht and Strasbourg are level on 0.
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 6 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 118 km | 398 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Strasbourg leads by 19 points.19
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 338 | 780 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 22 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Maastricht leads by 12 points.12
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 41 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 13 | 14 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 61 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
Nightlife. Strasbourg leads by 6 points.6
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 36 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 223 | 305 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 182 | 264 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 82 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 13 | 17 |
Nature & day trips. Strasbourg leads by 17 points.17
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 37 | 54 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 19 | 37 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 11 | 35 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 33 hectares | 71 hectares |
Good for families. Maastricht leads by 8 points.8
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 15 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 33 hectares | 71 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 5 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Strasbourg leads by 22 points.22
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 32 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Strasbourg leads by 4 points.4
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 62 |
| Price level global | 79.2 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €181 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Strasbourg leads by 4 points.4
| Maastricht | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 5.7 °C to 23.8 °C | 5.2 °C to 26.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 84 mm | 34 mm to 77 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
Where they differ
Maastricht is the stronger base for heritage and for children: 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Strasbourg's 1, about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, and 5 theme parks within reach against 1.
Strasbourg has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about twice as many restaurants there, across a much wider range of kitchens. Protected land around it covers 37% against 19% around Maastricht, with about twice as much park space near the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Both count beaches nearby, 6 for Maastricht and 9 for Strasbourg, but neither has a month with water at 21°C or more, so any swimming is inland and short-season.
They are also close on weather and on nights out. Both get around 1700 hours of sunshine a year and cool to 5-6°C in January, and in both, most bars and clubs sit near the centre, Strasbourg with somewhat more of them.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Maastricht. It has about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre as Strasbourg, and 5 theme parks within reach against 1, which counts for more on a family week than a dense old town does.
A weekend of eating and walking: Strasbourg. Roughly twice as many restaurants near the centre and a much wider range of kitchens, about three times as many notable places on foot, and somewhat more bars and clubs.
Planning days out: it depends what you want from them. Maastricht reaches 5 UNESCO-listed places against Strasbourg's 1, while Strasbourg has 37% protected land around it against 19%, plus more park space near the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €181 for the Netherlands and €160 for France, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A heavily visited city can sit further from its country's average than these two figures sit from each other, so treat them as background.
Beach counts are the other trap. Both places list beaches nearby, but neither has a month with water at 21°C or more, so these are inland waters with a short season. And Maastricht's warmest months are also its wettest, 84mm in August, so a strong summer ranking is not a promise of dry days.
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. Maastricht: 1991-2020 normals, Maastricht Airport Zuid Limburg (10 km from centre). Strasbourg: 1991-2020 normals, Strasbourg (9.1 km from centre).
Maastricht is at its best from June to August, with highs of 22-24°C, but that stretch is also its wettest, 69-84mm a month, so plan around showers. April, at 41mm and 15°C, is the driest month it offers.
Strasbourg is warmer in the same window and drier at the edges of the year: winter and early spring run at 34-39mm where Maastricht sits at 55-64mm. September still reaches 22°C, which makes early autumn a good time to walk it.
Getting there
| Flying from | Maastricht | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 35 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 137 km |
| PalmaPMI | 2 h 10 m no fares LGG · 29 km | 2 h 0 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 35 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 137 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 10 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SXB · 10 km |
| ValenciaVLC | 2 h 20 m €155 EIN · 70 km | 2 h 5 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| FaroFAO | 2 h 55 m €223 EIN · 70 km | 2 h 50 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| SofiaSOF | 2 h 40 m €98-110 EIN · 70 km | 2 h 15 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 12 h 0 m no fares BRU · 85 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 137 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 2 h 5 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 1 h 40 m no fares SXB · 10 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 3 h 35 m no fares EIN · 70 km | 3 h 15 m no fares BSL · 110 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 2026-09 to 2026-09, 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 | Maastricht | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Dutch | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| 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 or 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 49 m | 132 m |
| Main airport | Maastricht Aachen Airport (MST)9 km from centre5 non-stop destinations | Strasbourg Airport (SXB)10 km from centre42 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Maastricht | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 120,227 | 293,771 |
| People per km² | 2,000 | 3,752 |
| Museums within 10 km | 21 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 5 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 33 | 87 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Maastricht or Strasbourg somewhere new.