Paris or Rotterdam?
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 nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming 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 sights packed within walking distance, the widest choice of places to eat and the bigger night out, with summers reaching 24-26°C.
Choose Rotterdam if the coast matters: 22 beaches within reach against Paris's 2, theme parks for children, and a compact centre where most of the bars and clubs sit close together, so evenings need less travelling.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Rotterdam leads by 37 points.37
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 37 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 22 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 24 km |
| Water distance | — | 24 km |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 18 points.18
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 72 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 862 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 46 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 16 points.16
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 41 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 20 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 49 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 39 points.39
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 49 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 542 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 378 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 70 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 40 |
Nature & day trips. Paris leads by 6 points.6
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 79 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 61 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 13 points.13
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 62 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 27 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 61 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 8 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 43 points.43
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 74 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris leads by 4 points.4
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 58 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 79.2 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €181 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 10 points.10
| Paris | Rotterdam | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 56 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 6.2 °C to 22.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 42 mm to 85 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Paris concentrates many times more notable places within walking distance of the centre, so a day on foot covers far more ground. It also has many times as many bars and clubs, and many times as many restaurants near the centre, giving both sightseeing and evenings more depth.
Rotterdam is the one with a coast: 22 beaches nearby against Paris's 2, and a sea reaching 19°C in August. Its drinking and clubbing scene is much smaller, but most of it lies close to the centre.
Where they are alike
Cost is unlikely to decide this one. The national estimate behind Paris is €160 a day and the one behind Rotterdam €181, close enough that the difference sits below the choices you make once you arrive.
Neither is a hot-summer destination: highs top out at 26°C in Paris and 22°C in Rotterdam, and winters in both are cold. Day trips are the weaker side of each, though more of the land around Paris is protected.
Which traveller are you?
Someone planning a walking break around museums and galleries should take Paris: many times more museums, and many times more notable places within walking distance, so days need little transport.
Families divide. Paris has about three times as many attractions near the centre and more park space close in; Rotterdam counters with 8 theme parks within reach against Paris's 3, plus beaches for a warm day.
Anyone whose trip is built on eating out and late nights wants Paris, with far more restaurants and far more bars and clubs near the centre, though Rotterdam's smaller scene is tighter and its range of kitchens somewhat wider.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €160 and €181, are national price levels rather than measurements of either city. A capital or heavily visited city can sit well above its country's average, by more than the gap between these two, so they cannot tell you which trip will cost more.
No weather station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low and that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured; its monthly ratings rest on temperature and rainfall alone. Rotterdam's beach count also says little about swimming: the sea peaks at 19°C at the height of summer.
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). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).
Paris is at its best from June to August, when highs reach 24-26°C, and September still holds 22°C, which gives it the wider good-weather window of the two. May is its wettest month at 75mm, so late spring can be damp.
Rotterdam's warmest stretch is July and August, with highs of 22°C and the sea at its highest, 19°C. Those same months are also its wettest, near 84-85mm, so rain is likely; spring is drier but noticeably cooler.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 7 h 35 m €512-556 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 55 m €107-141 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 25 m €160-183 AMS · 47 km |
| DublinDUB | 1 h 35 m €115-156 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 35 m €69-96 AMS · 47 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 50 m €150-199 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 1 h 25 m €171-212 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 6 h 45 m €318-346 1 stop AMS · 47 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 1 h 20 m €108-163 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 15 m €145-187 AMS · 47 km |
| StockholmARN, BMA, NYO, VST | 2 h 30 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 2 h 0 m €156-208 AMS · 47 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 5 m €159-284 RTM · 5 km |
| LisbonLIS | 2 h 20 m €138-242 ORY · 14 km | 2 h 45 m no fares RTM · 5 km |
| ShanghaiPVG, SHA | 11 h 35 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 11 h 10 m no fares AMS · 47 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 | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 10 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Rotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre45 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Rotterdam |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 664,311 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 2,080 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 40 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 5 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 77 |
| 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 Rotterdam somewhere new.