Paris or Prague?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on 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 you want the denser walking city: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, the wider choice of restaurants, and warmer summers.
Choose Prague if you would rather have everything grouped tightly around one centre, with more park space for slower days and a national price level of €107 a day against €160.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Paris and Prague are level on 0.
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 7 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 15 points.15
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 75 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 1,866 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 29 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 4 points.4
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 72 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 138 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 100 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 72 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 11 points.11
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 77 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 2,248 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 1,457 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 65 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 123 |
Nature & day trips. Paris leads by 3 points.3
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 45 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 12 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 8 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 183 hectares |
Good for families. Paris and Prague are level on 75.
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 75 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 183 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 3 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 18 points.18
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 310 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Prague leads by 13 points.13
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 75 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 55.2 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €107 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 5 points.5
| Paris | Prague | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 61 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 2.2 °C to 25.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 22 mm to 80 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 7 |
Where they differ
Paris has roughly three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about three times as many restaurants near the centre. It also has about twice as many bars and clubs, though only about half sit near the centre.
Prague's smaller offering is more concentrated: most of its bars and museums sit close to the centre, so evenings and museum days involve less crossing town. The daily budget estimate is €107 for Prague's country against €160 for Paris's, a national figure.
Where they are alike
Both work equally well with children: each has 3 theme parks within reach, Paris with about twice as many attractions near the centre, Prague with about twice as much park space.
Museum-going holds up in both, with Paris somewhat ahead on numbers and Prague's collections closer together. Neither is a swimming destination: no month of sea at 21°C or more. Open country within day-trip reach is limited around both, though protected land is more extensive around Paris.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller with four days and a list of things to see should take Paris: about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, more museums, and 4 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
Someone whose evenings matter more than their sightseeing list may prefer Prague, where most of the bars and clubs sit near the centre, and where the country's price level is €107 a day.
Families can go either way. Each has 3 theme parks within reach; Paris offers more attractions near the centre, Prague roughly twice as much park space for unstructured afternoons.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €107, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A capital can sit well above its country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so neither figure tells you what a day will cost.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that series is missing rather than low: the sunshine side of this comparison is simply unmeasured. And Prague's 7 beaches are no swimming holiday, since neither city has a month of sea at 21°C or more, and Prague's warmest months are also its wettest.
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). Prague: 1991-2020 normals, Praha-Libus (8.1 km from centre).
Paris holds up best from June to September, with highs of 24-26°C in high summer and rainfall of 51-58mm; May is its wettest month, at 75mm. Late autumn and midwinter are its weakest stretch, cool and damp.
Prague is warmest in July and August, at 25°C, but those are also its wettest months, at 76-79mm. September is the steadier choice, 20°C with 44mm, and midwinter is dry, though highs then reach only 2-5°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 55 m €63-104 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 4 h 30 m €216-403 CDG · 22 km | 3 h 45 m €220-244 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km | 2 h 15 m €111-155 PRG · 12 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 5 h 55 m €276-321 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| NiceNCE | 1 h 30 m €86-132 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 45 m €151-199 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 45 m €146-195 1 stop PRG · 12 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 55 m €118-132 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 45 m €62-97 PRG · 12 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 8 h 20 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 11 h 10 m €509-719 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 10 h 20 m no fares PRG · 12 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 9 h 0 m no fares ORY · 14 km | 10 h 0 m no fares PRG · 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 | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | Czech |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Czech Koruna (CZK) |
| Sockets | CE230 V, 50 Hz | CE230 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 | 235 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Václav Havel Airport Prague (PRG)12 km from centre175 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Prague |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 1,397,880 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 2,817 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 88 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 89 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paris or Prague somewhere new.