Paris or Berlin?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on places to eat and nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage 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 Berlin if you want green space and room for children, with 5 theme parks within reach and about twice as much park space near the centre, and nights spread across neighbourhoods rather than concentrated.
Choose Paris if eating out and walkable sightseeing decide it: far more restaurants near the centre, twice the drinking places, and a milder year, 8-26°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Paris and Berlin are level on 0.
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 17 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 142 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 20 points.20
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 1,117 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 33 |
Museums & heritage. Berlin leads by 3 points.3
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 79 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 200 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 81 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 41 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 12 points.12
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 76 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 2,114 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 719 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 34 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 135 |
Nature & day trips. Berlin leads by 1 points.1
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 49 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 20 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 16 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 141 hectares |
Good for families. Berlin leads by 1 points.1
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 76 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 141 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 10 points.10
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 84 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 486 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 60 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 75.9 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €163 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 6 points.6
| Paris | Berlin | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 60 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 3.7 °C to 25 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 29 mm to 76 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 3 |
Where they differ
Berlin's advantage is space rather than density: about twice as much park space near the centre, 17 beaches nearby against Paris's 2, and 5 theme parks within reach against 3. Its bars and clubs sit well beyond the centre, so nights mean moving between areas.
Paris has many times as many restaurants near the centre, about twice as many places to drink and somewhat more nightclubs, about half near the centre. Notable places sit about twice as thick within walking distance, so a day on foot covers more.
Where they are alike
Neither is a place to swim: neither has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and the coast plays no part in either trip.
Beyond that they are close on day trips, families and cost. Both have protected countryside around them and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, and both suit children, Berlin through parks, Paris through attractions near the centre. The national budget estimates for the two countries are close, €163 and €160.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who plans days around eating and drinking should take Paris: many times as many restaurants near the centre, about twice as many places to drink, and roughly half the nightclubs close enough to walk between.
Families are better served in Berlin: about twice as much park space near the centre, 5 theme parks within reach against 3, and 17 beaches nearby, though Paris keeps more attractions in walking range.
Museum-led travellers can pick either. Both hold a comparable number of museums and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach; Paris packs its sights tighter, Berlin spreads them, which suits a slower, neighbourhood pace.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €163 and €160, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Berlin or Paris. Capitals and heavily visited cities can sit far from their own country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so neither city can be called the dearer one.
The sunshine figure is missing for Paris, as no nearby station records it, so its monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone and that side of the comparison is unmeasured. Berlin's beach count promises less than it sounds: with no month of sea at 21°C or more, swimming is incidental.
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). Berlin: 1991-2020 normals, Berlin / Alexanderplatz (0.9 km from centre).
Berlin is at its best from June to August, with highs of 23-25°C, though July is its wettest month at 76mm. Spring and autumn are drier, April at 29mm and March and October at 39mm.
Paris holds up longer at both ends, 13°C in March, 22°C in September and 17°C in October, and it stays at 8°C in January against Berlin's 4°C. Rain is steadier through the year, and May is its wettest at 75mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 50 m €65-126 BER · 19 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €152-378 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 2 h 40 m €133-143 BER · 19 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 10 m €122-134 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 10 m €137-154 BER · 19 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 8 h 10 m €737 BER · 19 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €61-89 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 40 m €86-132 BER · 19 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 10 m €188-212 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 20 m €159-242 BER · 19 km |
| MunichMUC | 1 h 30 m €160-210 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 1 h 15 m €178-321 BER · 19 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 50 m €158-204 1 stop BER · 19 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 6 h 5 m no fares BER · 19 km |
| BeijingPEK, PKX | 10 h 20 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 9 h 20 m €718-820 2 stops BER · 19 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 | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | German |
| 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 |
| Elevation | 27 m | 34 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)19 km from centre161 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 10 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Berlin |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 3,782,202 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 4,244 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 158 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 86 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paris or Berlin somewhere new.