Paris or Strasbourg?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on 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 Paris if you want the denser trip: many times more notable places within walking distance of the centre, many times more museums and restaurants, and far more bars and clubs.
Choose Strasbourg if you prefer a small city you can cover on foot, where the museums and bars sit close to the centre, with more protected countryside around it and 9 beaches nearby against Paris's 2.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Paris and Strasbourg are level on 0.
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 2 | 9 |
| Coast distance | 149 km | 398 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Paris leads by 23 points.23
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 90 | 67 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 4,732 | 780 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 33 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Paris leads by 35 points.35
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 41 |
| Museums within 10 km | 185 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 65 | 14 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 35 | 61 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
Nightlife. Paris leads by 52 points.52
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 88 | 36 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 3,796 | 305 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,694 | 264 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 45 | 87 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 201 | 17 |
Nature & day trips. Strasbourg leads by 6 points.6
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 48 | 54 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 28 | 37 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 26 | 35 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 71 hectares |
Good for families. Paris leads by 37 points.37
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 89 | 9 |
| Park area within 2 km | 82 hectares | 71 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 3 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Paris leads by 36 points.36
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 94 | 58 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 865 | 109 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Paris and Strasbourg are level on 62.
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 62 |
| Price level global | 73.7 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | €160 | €160 |
Year-round weather. Paris leads by 3 points.3
| Paris | Strasbourg | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 63 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7.8 °C to 26 °C | 5.2 °C to 26.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 38 mm to 75 mm | 34 mm to 77 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 3 |
Where they differ
Paris is the bigger night out by a wide margin, with many times as many bars and nightclubs, though only about half sit near the centre. It also packs many times as many notable places into walking distance of the centre, and for families, many times as many attractions nearby, more park space and 3 theme parks within reach against Strasbourg's 1.
Strasbourg's advantages are quieter: most of its bars and museums sit inside the centre, and 37% of the land around it is protected against 28% around Paris.
Where they are alike
Neither city is a place to swim. Strasbourg has 9 beaches nearby and Paris 2, but both are inland and neither has a month of water at 21°C or more, so swimming is a bonus rather than a reason to book.
Their climates and their countryside are close, too. Both peak at 26°C in high summer and both cool sharply by December, and each has substantial protected land within day-trip range, with parks near the centre in both cases.
Which traveller are you?
Someone planning late nights should take Paris without argument. It has many times as many bars and clubs, spread widely enough that you choose a district; Strasbourg's smaller set is concentrated in the centre.
Families with children are better served in Paris too, with many times as many attractions near the centre, more park space, and 3 theme parks within reach against Strasbourg's 1.
Walkers and day-trippers do better in Strasbourg. 37% of the surrounding land is protected against 28% around Paris, the centre is small enough to cross on foot, and 9 beaches lie nearby for warm days.
What the numbers don't tell you
Value is the one comparison to ignore here. It is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, and the daily budget beside it, €160, is a single national estimate rather than a measurement of either place. Nothing in this data says which of the two costs more.
The weather comparison is also incomplete: no station near Paris records sunshine hours, so that figure is missing rather than low, and Paris's monthly picture rests on temperature and rainfall alone. The same density that makes Paris easy to walk between sights concentrates visitors in its warmest months.
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). Strasbourg: 1991-2020 normals, Strasbourg (9.1 km from centre).
Paris suits June to September, when highs run 22-26°C and rainfall stays near 51-58mm. May is the exception, its wettest month at 75mm.
Strasbourg reaches the same heat but takes more rain with it in midsummer, 68-72mm at the peak. Its driest months come in late winter at 34-39mm, when highs sit at 7-12°C, so late August into September is its stronger window.
Getting there
| Flying from | Paris | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 11 h 45 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 11 h 20 m no fares ZRH · 137 km |
| PalmaPMI | 1 h 50 m no fares ORY · 14 km | 2 h 0 m no fares FKB · 33 km |
| NiceNCE | 1 h 30 m €86-132 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 20 m €81-198 SXB · 10 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 11 h 45 m €806-1124 CDG · 22 km | 12 h 0 m no fares ZRH · 137 km |
| ToulouseTLS | 1 h 20 m €84-111 ORY · 14 km | 1 h 30 m no fares SXB · 10 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 5 m €63-103 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 25 m no fares SXB · 10 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 30 m €579-648 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 8 h 5 m €606-782 1 stop ZRH · 137 km |
| BordeauxBOD | 1 h 15 m no fares CDG · 22 km | 1 h 35 m no fares SXB · 10 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m €110-135 CDG · 22 km | 1 h 45 m €133-212 1 stop SXB · 10 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 6 h 50 m €292-389 1 stop CDG · 22 km | 6 h 15 m €232-366 1 stop ZRH · 137 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 | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | French | French |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| 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 | 132 m |
| Main airport | Charles de Gaulle International Airport (CDG)22 km from centre277 non-stop destinations | Strasbourg Airport (SXB)10 km from centre42 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Paris | Strasbourg |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,103,778 | 293,771 |
| People per km² | 19,960 | 3,752 |
| Museums within 10 km | 251 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 4 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 169 | 87 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paris or Strasbourg somewhere new.