Paris or Milan?
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 sights concentration 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 Paris if the trip is mostly about the city itself: far more to see within walking distance of the centre, about twice as many restaurants near the middle, and the broader night out.
Choose Milan if you plan to get out of town regularly: more protected land around it, more park space near the centre, 5 theme parks within reach, and warmer summers, with July highs of 29°C.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Paris and Milan are level on 0.
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 4 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 120 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 20 points.20
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 70 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 1,991 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 20 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 74 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 87 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 63 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 13 points.13
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 75 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 2,215 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 961 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 43 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 70 |
Nature & day trips. Milan leads by 17 points.17
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 65 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 30 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 11 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 102 hectares |
Good for families. Milan leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 77 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 76 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 102 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 20 points.20
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 74 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 266 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Milan leads by 6 points.6
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 68 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 64.9 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €155 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 2 points.2
| Paris | Milan | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 7 °C to 28.6 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 44 mm to 127 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Milan's advantage lies beyond the centre. 30% of the surrounding land is protected against 28% around Paris, there is somewhat more park space close in, and 5 theme parks sit within reach against Paris's 3, which makes a car or a train ticket worth having.
Paris concentrates. It has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, about twice as many restaurants near the middle and a much wider range of kitchens, plus about twice as many places to drink and three times as many nightclubs.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Milan has 4 beaches within reach against Paris's 2, but neither records a month with sea at 21°C or more, so water time is a side trip at best rather than a reason to book.
They also land close on museums, families and weather. Each has 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach, both hold plenty for children near the centre, and both sit at January highs of 7-8°C.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller coming for museums and restaurants should take Paris: about twice as many museums and about twice as many restaurants near the centre, with a wider spread of kitchens, all of it densely packed within walking distance.
Families with young children may find Milan the easier base, with more park space near the centre and 5 theme parks within reach against 3, although Paris does have somewhat more tourist attractions close in.
Anyone intending to leave the city on several days should lean to Milan: 30% of the land around it is protected, day-trip options are broader, and summer highs reach 29°C for time spent outdoors.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €155 for Italy and €160 for France, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Milan or Paris. A capital or a heavily visited city can sit well above its own country average, by more than the gap between these two numbers, so treat them as country context rather than a ranking of the two cities.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low. The monthly picture there rests on temperature and rainfall alone, which leaves one side of the weather comparison simply unmeasured.
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). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Novara / Cameri (41.2 km from centre).
Milan is at its best from June to August, when highs run 26-29°C and July is the driest of the summer months at 57mm. Spring works as well, though May brings 102mm.
Paris holds a longer season. June to September stay at 22-26°C with rain steady at 51-58mm, so early autumn remains workable there while Milan turns wet, with 116mm in September and 127mm in November. Winter is the weakest stretch in both, at 7-8°C in January.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 45 m €48-103 MXP · 40 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 8 h 15 m €542-635 1 stop MXP · 40 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 30 m €34-53 MXP · 40 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 0 m €63-91 MXP · 40 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 55 m €118-132 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 15 m €116-135 LIN · 7 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 35 m €78-142 MXP · 40 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 3 h 15 m €152-378 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 2 h 40 m €140-309 MXP · 40 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 6 h 10 m €375-563 MXP · 40 km |
| Pointe-a-pitrePTP | 8 h 35 m no fares ORY · 14 km | 9 h 10 m no fares MXP · 40 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 12 h 5 m €705-999 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 12 h 10 m no fares MXP · 40 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 | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Italian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CFL230 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 | 138 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Milan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre203 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Milan |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 1,354,196 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 7,453 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 87 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 4 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 79 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paris or Milan somewhere new.