VacationSelector
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Milan or Santiago de Compostela?

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 Milan for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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. Milan 20, Santiago de Compostela 32: Santiago de Compostela leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Milan 78, Santiago de Compostela 68: Milan leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Milan 78, Santiago de Compostela 70: Milan leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Milan 66, Santiago de Compostela 45: Milan leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Milan 65, Santiago de Compostela 62: Milan leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Milan 91, Santiago de Compostela 72: Milan leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Milan 55, Santiago de Compostela 42: Milan leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Milan 79, Santiago de Compostela 70: Milan leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Milan 92, Santiago de Compostela 35: Milan leads by 57 points.
Affordability. Milan 33, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Milan 82, Santiago de Compostela 40: Milan leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Milan and Santiago de Compostela are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Milan and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Milan
Best match
65match

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

Santiago de Compostela
54match

Wins on prices 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.

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MilanSantiago de Compostela

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMilanSantiago de Compostela
Official languageItalianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation138 m260 m
Main airportMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMilanSantiago de Compostela
City population1,354,196100,965
People per km²7,453459
Museums within 10 km886
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Milan or Santiago de Compostela 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.