VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Madrid or Nice?

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 Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Nice for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Nice’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. Madrid 5, Nice 75: Nice leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Nice 66: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Nice 64: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Nice 47: Madrid leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Nice 80: Nice leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Nice 87: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Nice 57: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Nice 74: Madrid leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Nice 55: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Nice 35: Madrid leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Nice 45: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Nice 40: Nice leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Nice.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Nice
60match

Wins on beaches 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.

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MadridNice

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridNice
Official languageSpanishFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation663 m0 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridNice
City population3,506,730357,737
People per km²5,8014,975
Museums within 10 km8817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Nice 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.