VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace, Split
SplitThe Riva in front of Diocletian's Palace

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Split by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Split?

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

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Split for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Split’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, Split 75: Split leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Split 57: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Split 66: Madrid leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Split 52: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Split 77: Split leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Split 78: Madrid leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Split 54: Madrid leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Split 67: Madrid leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Split 32: Madrid leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Split 45: Madrid leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Split 37: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Split 40: Split leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

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

Split
57match

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

Split in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
25 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
MadridSplit

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridSplit
Official languageSpanishCroatian
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 m0 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridSplit
City population3,506,730160,577
People per km²5,801-
Museums within 10 km8811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km44
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 Split 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.