VacationSelector

Madrid or Rome?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Madrid
66
match

Wins on places to eat and nightlife with your weighting.

Rome
✓ Best match
72
match

Wins on beaches & swimming and sights concentration 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 Madrid if eating out is the point of the trip: about twice as many restaurants near the centre as Rome, a much wider range of kitchens, and a night-out scene concentrated near the middle rather than spread across the city.

Choose Rome if you want monuments and museums within walking distance of one another, plus the option of a sea day, with water at 25°C in August.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

MadridRome
Beaches & swimming. Rome leads by 33 points.33
MadridRome
Score033
Swim season months05
Beaches 10 km43
Coast distance305 km24 km
Water distance—24 km
Places to eat. Madrid leads by 23 points.23
MadridRome
Score8360
Restaurants within 2 km of centre3,5082,241
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km2810
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 9 points.9
MadridRome
Score7584
Museums within 10 km97161
Museums within 2 km of centre5979
Share of museums within 2 km %6149
Unesco sites within 50 km47
Nightlife. Madrid leads by 7 points.7
MadridRome
Score8174
Drinking venues within 4 km2,4142,022
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,498912
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %6245
Nightclubs within 4 km34185
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 7 points.7
MadridRome
Score6370
Protected land share 50 km %1919
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %10078
Park area within 2 km187 hectares172 hectares
Good for families. Rome leads by 9 points.9
MadridRome
Score7786
Tourist attractions within 2 km61126
Park area within 2 km187 hectares172 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km34
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 24 points.24
MadridRome
Score7599
Notable places within 2 km2881,125
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Madrid leads by 3 points.3
MadridRome
Score7168
Price level global60.864.9
Daily budget€122€155
Year-round weather. Madrid leads by 1 points.1
MadridRome
Score7271
Monthly daytime high10 °C to 32.7 °C12 °C to 31.4 °C
Monthly rainfall9 mm to 64 mm21 mm to 114 mm
Dry months73
0255075100

Where they differ

Madrid has about twice as many restaurants near the centre as Rome and a much wider range of kitchens, which tells over a week of dinners. Its museums sit tightly around the centre. It counts 4 beaches nearby, but no month of swimmable sea.

Rome fits about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about twice as many museums, with 7 UNESCO-listed places in day-trip reach against Madrid's 4. Its sea holds 21°C or more for 5 months, peaking at 25°C.

Where they are alike

On weather the two run close: winters that stay mild, Madrid reaching 10°C at the coldest and Rome 12°C, and summers that turn properly hot, up to 33°C and 31°C. Neither city has an off season that shuts it down.

Beyond that, both sit in countries with similar estimated daily budgets, both give you real choice for a drink after dinner, and 19% of the land around each is protected, with much the same park space near either centre.

Which traveller are you?

Ruins-and-museums travellers should take Rome: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly twice as many museums, and 7 UNESCO-listed places in day-trip reach against Madrid's 4.

Anyone who plans a trip around meals and late nights should take Madrid: about twice as many restaurants near the centre, a much wider range of kitchens, more places to drink, and many times as many nightclubs, most of them central.

Families lean Rome, with about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, 4 theme parks within reach against Madrid's 3, and warm enough sea in high summer. Park space near either centre is much the same.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget figures, €122 for Spain and €155 for Italy, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of Madrid or Rome. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit further from its own national average than the two countries sit from each other, so this gap tells you nothing about which trip costs more.

Rome's strength in walkable sights and family attractions is a density figure: the same compact core carries the visitors, and it is busiest in the months that rate highest. Madrid's driest months are also its hottest, 33°C in July on 9mm of rain, so dry is not the same as comfortable.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Madrid
10
12
16
19
23
29
33
32
27
20
14
10
Rome
12
13
16
18
24
28
31
31
27
22
17
13
Sea temperature, °C
Madrid
No coastline within reach
Rome
15
14
14
15
18
22
25
25
24
21
19
16
Rainfall, mm
Madrid
32
34
35
46
49
20
9
10
24
64
53
42
Rome
67
69
57
75
62
33
21
38
70
97
114
103
Daylight, hours per day
Madrid
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Rome
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Madrid
5
5
7
8
9
11
12
11
9
6
5
4
Rome
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
11
8
6
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Madrid is at its best from May into June, at 23-29°C, and again in September at 27°C with 24mm of rain. Midsummer is very dry but hot, 32-33°C.

Rome takes July, milder at 31°C, and its sea holds 25°C into August. Autumn is the wetter of the two, above 90mm a month from October onwards against Madrid's 64mm in October, so late-season days spent walking are the safer bet in Madrid.

Getting there

Flying fromMadridRome
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 55 m
€95-123
MAD · 14 km
2 h 0 m
€91-122
FCO · 23 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 10 m
€52-105
MAD · 14 km
2 h 20 m
€76-143
1 stop
FCO · 23 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 15 m
€116-130
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
1 h 40 m
€44-74
FCO · 23 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
2 h 0 m
€53-86
MAD · 14 km
1 h 15 m
€84-118
FCO · 23 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
7 h 25 m
€496-659
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
8 h 45 m
€446-597
FCO · 23 km
LisbonLIS
1 h 15 m
€40-87
MAD · 14 km
2 h 50 m
€91-168
FCO · 23 km
CataniaCTA
2 h 35 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
1 h 20 m
€60-112
FCO · 23 km
Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE
10 h 30 m
€636-955
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
11 h 45 m
€893-1016
1 stop
FCO · 23 km
DohaDOH
6 h 55 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
5 h 25 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
SeoulICN, GMP
12 h 25 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
11 h 15 m
€630-760
FCO · 23 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

MeasureMadridRome
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation663 m21 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre236 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridRome
City population3,506,7302,748,109
People per km²5,8012,135
Museums within 10 km88177
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km47
Distinct cuisines in the centre10665
Swim season, months above 21 °C–5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Rome somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.