Paris or Madrid?
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, 1 point apart
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and value for money 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 Madrid if you want warmth, dry days and more green space within the city, with open country and day trips as part of the plan rather than an afterthought.
Choose Paris if you want the tighter walkable centre of the two, with about three times as many notable places within walking distance, more restaurants close by and a wider range of kitchens to work through.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Paris and Madrid are level on 0.
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 305 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 7 points.7
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 83 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 3,508 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 28 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 1 points.1
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 75 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 97 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 59 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 61 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 7 points.7
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 81 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 2,414 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 1,498 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 341 |
Nature & day trips. Madrid leads by 15 points.15
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 63 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 19 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 187 hectares |
Good for families. Madrid leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 77 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 61 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 187 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 19 points.19
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 75 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 288 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Madrid leads by 9 points.9
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 71 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €122 |
Year-round weather. Madrid leads by 6 points.6
| Paris | Madrid | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 72 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 10 °C to 32.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 9 mm to 64 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 7 |
Where they differ
Madrid has about twice as much park space near the centre and runs warmer through the year, with daytime highs of 10-33°C against Paris's 8-26°C, and it has far more genuinely dry months. The national daily budget estimate is €122 in Spain against €160 in France.
Paris packs more into walking range, with about three times as many notable places near the centre. The land around it is also more heavily protected, 28% against 19% around Madrid, and it offers a somewhat wider range of kitchens and more restaurants close to the centre.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Madrid has 4 beaches within reach against Paris's 2, but neither has a month with sea at 21°C or more, so water is a detour rather than a reason to go.
On museums and family appeal the two are close. Both are within day-trip reach of 4 UNESCO-listed places and both have 3 theme parks nearby; Madrid's museums cluster tightly around the centre, while Paris has somewhat more attractions near its own.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who wants to walk everywhere should pick Paris: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, plus more restaurants close by and a wider range of kitchens.
Families lean Madrid: about twice as much park space near the centre, warmer and drier days, and 3 theme parks within reach, the same count as Paris but with more room outdoors between visits.
Night owls split. Madrid has about twice as many nightclubs and most sit near the centre; Paris has about twice as many places to drink, though only about half of them are central.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €122 and €160, are national estimates for Spain and France, price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city. A capital can sit far from its own country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so they say little about what a week in Madrid or Paris actually costs.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low and this side of the weather comparison is unmeasured. Madrid's dry summer also comes attached to 33°C in July: the driest months are the hardest 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). Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre).
Madrid is at its best in late spring and September, with highs of 23°C in May and 27°C in September and only 24mm of rain that month. July and August are hot, 33°C and 32°C, but almost dry at 9mm and 10mm; October turns wet at 64mm.
Paris comes into its own from June to August, with highs of 24-26°C and rain steady at 51-58mm. May is its wettest month at 75mm, so early summer is the safer bet.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Madrid |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 2 h 10 m €52-105 MAD · 14 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 15 m €40-87 MAD · 14 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 7 h 25 m €496-659 1 stop MAD · 14 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 15 m €116-130 1 stop MAD · 14 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 20 m €61-89 CDG · 22 km | 2 h 0 m €53-86 MAD · 14 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 55 m €118-132 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 15 m €83-91 MAD · 14 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 10 m €188-212 CDG · 22 km | 2 h 25 m €175-213 MAD · 14 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 7 h 20 m €356-444 2 stops MAD · 14 km |
| BogotaBOG | 10 h 50 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 10 h 5 m €963-1395 2 stops MAD · 14 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 12 h 5 m €705-999 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 13 h 20 m no fares MAD · 14 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 | Madrid |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Spanish |
| 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 | 663 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre236 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Madrid |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 3,506,730 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 5,801 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 88 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 106 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paris or Madrid somewhere new.