VacationSelector
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan

Photos: Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Manchester 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 Manchester for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Stockholm for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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. Manchester 9, Stockholm 40: Stockholm leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Manchester 51, Stockholm 64: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Manchester 50, Stockholm 77: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Manchester 72, Stockholm 57: Manchester leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Manchester 64, Stockholm 72: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Manchester 77, Stockholm 68: Manchester leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Manchester 58, Stockholm 82: Stockholm leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Manchester 68, Stockholm 84: Stockholm leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Manchester 62, Stockholm 70: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Manchester 42, Stockholm 30: Manchester leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Manchester 74, Stockholm 65: Manchester leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Manchester 15, Stockholm 56: Stockholm leads by 41 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Manchester and Stockholm.

Your match

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

Manchester
54match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 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°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ManchesterStockholm

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. Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre). Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureManchesterStockholm
Official languageEnglishSwedish
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Swedish Krona (SEK)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation38 m22 m
Main airportManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinationsStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureManchesterStockholm
City population547,627984,748
People per km²4,7375,260
Museums within 10 km28266
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Manchester 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.