Paris or Amsterdam?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on sights concentration and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Amsterdam if you want water within reach, with 33 beaches nearby, and a compact centre where museums and nightlife sit close enough to cover on foot.
Choose Paris if you want the denser city: far more notable places within walking distance of the centre, roughly twice as many museums and drinking spots, and warmer summers topping out at 26°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Amsterdam leads by 40 points.40
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 40 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 33 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | — | 24 km |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 7 points.7
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 83 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 1,957 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 44 |
Museums & heritage. Amsterdam leads by 4 points.4
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 80 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 98 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 69 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 70 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 18 points.18
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 70 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 1,543 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 1,078 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 114 |
Nature & day trips. Amsterdam leads by 12 points.12
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 60 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 21 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 49 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 7 points.7
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 68 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 74 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 49 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 26 points.26
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 68 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 196 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris leads by 4 points.4
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 58 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €181 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 9 points.9
| Paris | Amsterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 57 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 6.1 °C to 23.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 42 mm to 85 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Amsterdam has 33 beaches nearby against Paris's 2, with sea reaching 19°C in August, so a dip is at least possible; neither city offers sea at 21°C or more. Its bars and clubs are fewer but nearly all sit near the centre, so nights need little planning.
Paris has many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about twice as many drinking places and nightclubs, though only about half of them are central, so a night out often means crossing the city.
Where they are alike
Both are museum cities. Paris holds about twice as many, while Amsterdam's sit more tightly around the centre, and Amsterdam has 5 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Paris's 4.
Both also eat well: Paris with about twice as many restaurants near the centre, Amsterdam with a somewhat wider spread of kitchens. Families get 3 theme parks within reach of either, and the national budget estimates, €181 for the Netherlands and €160 for France, sit close.
Which traveller are you?
Travelling with children: Paris edges it, with more attractions and about twice as much park space near the centre, though both have 3 theme parks within reach and Amsterdam adds 33 beaches for a change of pace.
Museum-led trips on foot: Paris has about twice as many museums and many times as many notable places within walking distance, so days need less transport. Amsterdam suits anyone who prefers a smaller, tighter centre with its museums clustered.
A night out: Paris has roughly twice the bars and clubs, but they are spread across the city. Amsterdam's are mostly central, which suits a short trip without taxis.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €181 and €160, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Amsterdam or Paris. A heavily visited capital can sit well above its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so neither figure tells you which city will cost you more.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and the monthly picture there rests on temperature and rainfall alone. And Amsterdam's beach count says little about swimming: the sea peaks at 19°C, so those 33 beaches are mostly for walking.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paris: 1991-2020 normals, Paris-Montsouris (4.6 km from centre). Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, De Bilt (35.3 km from centre).
Amsterdam peaks in July and August, highs of 23°C and sea at 19°C, though those are also its wettest months at 84-85mm, so rain gear matters even in high summer. April is drier at 42mm, but the water is far too cold for swimming.
Paris holds up from June to September, 22-26°C with rain near 51-58mm, and it stays a workable city break through the drier late winter; May is the wet exception at 75mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Amsterdam |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 5 m €93-112 AMS · 12 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 7 h 35 m €512-556 1 stop AMS · 12 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km | 2 h 10 m €130-171 AMS · 12 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €61-89 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 35 m €106-155 AMS · 12 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 12 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €152-378 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 3 h 15 m €166-175 AMS · 12 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 50 m €188-239 AMS · 12 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 12 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 50 m €150-199 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 1 h 25 m €171-212 1 stop AMS · 12 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 12 h 5 m €705-999 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 11 h 40 m no fares AMS · 12 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Paris | Amsterdam |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Dutch |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 or 911 |
| Elevation | 27 m | -2 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Amsterdam |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 921,468 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 4,208 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 101 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 98 |
| 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 Paris or Amsterdam somewhere new.