VacationSelector

Madrid or Santiago de Compostela?

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

Your match

Madrid
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on good for families and nightlife with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
42
match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

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 you want a wide choice of restaurants, late nights out and museums, plus theme parks and parks for children, and you can handle July at 33°C.

Choose Santiago de Compostela if you prefer a small city with cool summers near 25°C, a walkable centre, and you are prepared for heavy rain outside July and August.

Scoreboard

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

MadridSantiago de Compostela
Beaches & swimming. Madrid and Santiago de Compostela are level on 0.
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score00
Swim season months00
Beaches 10 km40
Coast distance305 km26 km
Water distance—26 km
Places to eat. Madrid leads by 35 points.35
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score8348
Restaurants within 2 km of centre3,508336
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km2823
Museums & heritage. Madrid leads by 31 points.31
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score7544
Museums within 10 km9716
Museums within 2 km of centre5914
Share of museums within 2 km %6188
Unesco sites within 50 km42
Nightlife. Madrid leads by 45 points.45
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score8136
Drinking venues within 4 km2,414306
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre1,498268
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %6288
Nightclubs within 4 km34113
Nature & day trips. Madrid leads by 17 points.17
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score6346
Protected land share 50 km %1911
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %10092
Park area within 2 km187 hectares109 hectares
Good for families. Madrid leads by 50 points.50
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score7727
Tourist attractions within 2 km612
Park area within 2 km187 hectares109 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km30
Sights concentration. Madrid leads by 33 points.33
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score7542
Notable places within 2 km28844
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Madrid and Santiago de Compostela are level on 71.
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score7171
Price level global60.860.8
Daily budget€122€122
Year-round weather. Madrid leads by 10 points.10
MadridSantiago de Compostela
Score7262
Monthly daytime high10 °C to 32.7 °C11.3 °C to 25 °C
Monthly rainfall9 mm to 64 mm41 mm to 223 mm
Dry months70
0255075100

Where they differ

Madrid has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central. For families it has many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space, and 3 theme parks within reach where Santiago has none.

Santiago counters with scale rather than choice: a compact centre in a city of 101,000, summer highs of 25°C instead of 33°C, and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.

Where they are alike

Neither is a place to swim. Santiago's sea peaks at 17°C in August, and although Madrid has 4 beaches nearby, neither city gets a month of sea at 21°C or more, so a trip here is built around other things.

Weather and countryside are closer than the rest. Both have January highs of 10-11°C, and both have protected land around them, more of it around Madrid, with parks near each centre.

Which traveller are you?

Someone travelling for food and late nights should go to Madrid: many times as many restaurants near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and many times as many bars and clubs, most of them central.

Families are also better served in Madrid: many times as many attractions near the centre, about twice as much park space, and 3 theme parks within reach where Santiago has none.

A traveller who dislikes heat, or wants a small city to walk in, should pick Santiago de Compostela, where August highs stay near 25°C while Madrid sits at 32°C, and the centre is covered on foot.

What the numbers don't tell you

The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing about which of these two is the cheaper trip. The €122 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either city, and should not be read as a trait of Madrid or of Santiago de Compostela.

A moderate temperature range can hide the rain. Santiago's highs never pass 25°C, which reads as comfortable, but November to January bring over 200mm a month. In Madrid the summer figure works the other way: pleasant averages sit beside a July at 33°C.

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
Santiago de Compostela
11
13
15
17
20
23
25
25
23
19
14
12
Sea temperature, °C
Madrid
No coastline within reach
Santiago de Compostela
14
13
13
14
15
16
17
17
17
16
15
14
Rainfall, mm
Madrid
32
34
35
46
49
20
9
10
24
64
53
42
Santiago de Compostela
217
149
153
136
116
61
41
61
91
208
223
222
Daylight, hours per day
Madrid
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Santiago de Compostela
9
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
Santiago de Compostela
3
4
5
6
7
7
8
8
6
4
3
3

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Madrid is at its best in May and September, with highs of 23°C and 27°C and rainfall of 49mm and 24mm; June is warm at 29°C and dry at 20mm. July pushes to 33°C, and October turns wetter at 64mm.

Santiago's window is narrower: July and August, at 25°C with 41-61mm of rain. From November to January it takes 217-223mm a month with highs of 11-12°C, so winter visits are wet rather than cold.

Getting there

Flying fromMadridSantiago de Compostela
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 15 m
€116-130
1 stop
MAD · 14 km
1 h 40 m
€71-184
SCQ · 10 km
TenerifeTFS, TFN
2 h 50 m
€109-153
MAD · 14 km
2 h 50 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
PalmaPMI
1 h 20 m
€56-238
MAD · 14 km
1 h 50 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 10 m
€52-105
MAD · 14 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
Las PalmasLPA
2 h 45 m
€77-197
MAD · 14 km
2 h 45 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
MalagaAGP
1 h 10 m
€78-91
MAD · 14 km
1 h 35 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 55 m
€95-123
MAD · 14 km
1 h 55 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
SevillaSVQ
1 h 10 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 km
AlicanteALC
1 h 5 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
1 h 40 m
€218-283
1 stop
SCQ · 10 km
MarrakechRAK
1 h 55 m
no fares
MAD · 14 km
2 h 10 m
no fares
SCQ · 10 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

MeasureMadridSantiago de Compostela
Official languageSpanishSpanish
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 m260 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre236 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSantiago de Compostela
City population3,506,730100,965
People per km²5,801459
Museums within 10 km886
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Distinct cuisines in the centre10638
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.