VacationSelector
The cathedral from the gardens, Malaga
MalagaThe cathedral from the gardens
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Malaga by Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Malaga or Stockholm?

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 Malaga for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’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. Malaga 77, Stockholm 40: Malaga leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Malaga 68, Stockholm 64: Malaga leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Malaga 65, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Malaga 62, Stockholm 57: Malaga leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Malaga 73, Stockholm 72: Malaga leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Malaga 87, Stockholm 68: Malaga leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Malaga 70, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Malaga 70, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Malaga 55, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Malaga 55, Stockholm 30: Malaga leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Malaga 45, Stockholm 65: Stockholm leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Malaga 42, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Malaga and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Malaga
64match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Stockholm
64match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Malaga in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
22 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
MalagaStockholm

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMalagaStockholm
Official languageSpanishSwedish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation18 m22 m
Main airportMálaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)8 km from centre166 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureMalagaStockholm
City population599,063984,748
People per km²1,5175,260
Museums within 10 km32266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Malaga or Stockholm 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.