VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Madrid or Rotterdam?

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
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Rotterdam leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Rotterdam 52: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Rotterdam 58: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Rotterdam 52: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Rotterdam 44: Madrid leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Rotterdam 85: Madrid leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Rotterdam 66: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Rotterdam 78: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Rotterdam 55: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Rotterdam 38: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Rotterdam 58: Madrid leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Rotterdam.

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 food and drink with your weighting.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MadridRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridRotterdam
Official languageSpanishDutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation663 m10 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridRotterdam
City population3,506,730664,311
People per km²5,8012,080
Museums within 10 km8840
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km45
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 Madrid or Rotterdam 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.