VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The Great Mosque with the mountains behind, Tirana
TiranaThe Great Mosque with the mountains behind

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Tirana by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Tirana?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Tirana for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Tirana’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, Tirana 46: Tirana leads by 41 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Tirana 57: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Tirana 42: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Tirana 58: Madrid leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Tirana 62: Tirana leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Tirana 64: Madrid leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Tirana 40: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Tirana 54: Madrid leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Tirana 32: Madrid leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Tirana 76: Tirana leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Tirana 32: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Tirana 27: Madrid leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Tirana.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Tirana
49match

Wins on beaches and prices 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

Tirana in July

31 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
43 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MadridTirana

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Tirana: 1961-1990 normals, Tirana (3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridTirana
Official languageSpanishAlbanian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Lek (ALL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation663 m110 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsTirana International Airport Mother Teresa (TIA)13 km from centre121 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridTirana
City population3,506,730389,323
People per km²5,8019,314
Museums within 10 km8811
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
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 Tirana 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.