VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
White sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach, Pensacola
PensacolaWhite sand and turquoise water at Pensacola Beach

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Pensacola by Jason Meredith, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Madrid or Pensacola?

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

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Pensacola for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Pensacola’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, Pensacola 84: Pensacola leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Pensacola 45: Madrid leads by 35 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Pensacola 45: Madrid leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Pensacola 42: Madrid leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Pensacola 62: Pensacola leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Pensacola 45: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Pensacola 62: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Pensacola 18: Madrid leads by 66 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Pensacola 28: Madrid leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Pensacola 44: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Pensacola 36: Madrid leads by 41 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Pensacola 30: Madrid leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Pensacola.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Pensacola
45match

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

Pensacola in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridPensacola

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Pensacola: 1991-2020 normals, Pensacola / Pleasant Grove (12.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridPensacola
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m31 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)6 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPensacola
City population3,506,73054,312
People per km²5,801515
Museums within 10 km885
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-7 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Pensacola 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.