VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Wilmington?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Wilmington 48: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Wilmington 40: Madrid leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Wilmington 40: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Wilmington 58: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Wilmington 45: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Wilmington 62: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Wilmington 28: Madrid leads by 56 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Wilmington 33: Madrid leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Wilmington 42: Madrid leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Wilmington 40: Madrid leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Wilmington 33: Madrid leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on beaches 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridWilmington
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m9 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridWilmington
City population3,506,730115,451
People per km²5,801839
Museums within 10 km882
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Wilmington 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.