VacationSelector

Rome or Split?

Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Your match

Rome
✓ Best match
72
match

Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.

Split
51
match

Wins on beaches & swimming 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 Rome if the point of the trip is the city itself: a centre where most of what you came for is within walking distance, deep museum holdings, plenty of restaurants and nightlife, and theme parks that keep children occupied.

Choose Split if swimming comes first: the sea starts at the centre rather than 24km away, and there are 87 beaches close by against Rome's three.

Scoreboard

Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.

RomeSplit
Beaches & swimming. Split leads by 40 points.40
RomeSplit
Score3373
Swim season months54
Beaches 10 km387
Coast distance24 km0 km
Water distance24 km0 km
Places to eat. Rome leads by 22 points.22
RomeSplit
Score6038
Restaurants within 2 km of centre2,241268
Effective number of cuisines within 2 km1015
Museums & heritage. Rome leads by 32 points.32
RomeSplit
Score8452
Museums within 10 km16118
Museums within 2 km of centre7916
Share of museums within 2 km %4989
Unesco sites within 50 km74
Nightlife. Rome leads by 33 points.33
RomeSplit
Score7441
Drinking venues within 4 km2,022379
Drinking venues within 2 km of centre912263
Share of drinking venues within 2 km %4569
Nightclubs within 4 km8523
Nature & day trips. Rome leads by 32 points.32
RomeSplit
Score7038
Protected land share 50 km %199
Landscape blanket share 50 km %00
Land share of disc %7862
Park area within 2 km172 hectares30 hectares
Good for families. Rome leads by 60 points.60
RomeSplit
Score8626
Tourist attractions within 2 km1269
Park area within 2 km172 hectares30 hectares
Theme parks within 30 km40
Sights concentration. Rome leads by 57 points.57
RomeSplit
Score9942
Notable places within 2 km1,12543
Min wikipedia languages55
Value for money. Split leads by 12 points.12
RomeSplit
Score6880
Price level global64.948.5
Daily budget€155€138
Year-round weather. Rome leads by 2 points.2
RomeSplit
Score7169
Monthly daytime high12 °C to 31.4 °C10.7 °C to 31 °C
Monthly rainfall21 mm to 114 mm25 mm to 117 mm
Dry months32
0255075100

Where they differ

Rome has many times more notable places within walking distance of the centre, so days need less transport. For children it offers far more attractions and park space, plus theme parks within reach where Split has none. It has more museums too, and 19% of the surrounding land is protected against 9%.

Split answers with water: the sea begins at the centre, not 24km out, and there are 87 beaches against three. Its bars and clubs are fewer but mostly central, and its kitchens cover a wider range.

Where they are alike

The weather is close to identical: winter highs of 11-12°C, summer peaks of 31°C in both, and seas that top out at 25°C in August.

Eating and cost also sit near each other. Italy's and Croatia's national daily estimates are not far apart, €155 and €138. And while Rome has many more restaurants near the centre, Split's cover a wider range of kitchens, so what differs is choice rather than count.

Which traveller are you?

Travelling with children: Rome. It has many times more attractions and park space near the centre than Split, and theme parks within reach where Split has none, so hot or wet days still have somewhere to go.

Here to swim: Split. The sea starts at the centre rather than 24km out, and there are 87 beaches nearby against Rome's three, though Rome's sea stays at 21°C or more for a month longer.

Museums and late nights: Rome. Many more museums, many more places to drink and several times as many nightclubs, and enough within walking distance of the centre to fill several days without transport.

What the numbers don't tell you

The daily budget figures are national estimates for Italy and Croatia, €155 and €138, price levels for restaurants and hotels across each country rather than measurements of either city. A capital and a heavily visited coastal city can each sit well above their own national average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so treat them as country context rather than evidence that one city costs more.

Split's beach advantage is seasonal: the sea holds 21°C or more for four months, and those months are also the driest and the ones everyone else picks.

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.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Rome
12
13
16
18
24
28
31
31
27
22
17
13
Split
11
12
15
18
23
28
31
31
25
21
16
12
Sea temperature, °C
Rome
15
14
14
15
18
22
25
25
24
21
19
16
Split
14
13
14
15
18
22
24
25
23
21
19
16
Rainfall, mm
Rome
67
69
57
75
62
33
21
38
70
97
114
103
Split
73
64
59
62
58
49
25
32
82
80
117
99
Daylight, hours per day
Rome
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Split
9
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Rome
4
5
6
7
9
10
11
11
8
6
4
4
Split
5
5
7
7
9
10
12
11
8
7
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre). Split: 1991-2020 normals, Split / Marjan (0.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Rome is strongest from May to September, with highs of 24-31°C and the driest stretch of the year, 33mm in June and 21mm in July. October reverses that at 97mm, and November is wetter again.

Split's season opens earlier: April is already comfortable at 18°C, and it holds through August, when the sea reaches 25°C and rainfall sits at 32mm. September is the weaker month here, at 82mm against Rome's 70mm, so late-season plans lean back towards Rome.

Getting there

Flying fromRomeSplit
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
2 h 20 m
€76-143
1 stop
FCO · 23 km
2 h 30 m
€88-160
SPU · 12 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
2 h 0 m
€91-122
FCO · 23 km
2 h 5 m
€169-225
SPU · 12 km
AmsterdamAMS
2 h 10 m
€176-218
FCO · 23 km
2 h 10 m
€186-201
1 stop
SPU · 12 km
MadridMAD
2 h 15 m
€98-119
FCO · 23 km
2 h 40 m
no fares
SPU · 12 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
1 h 50 m
€96-147
FCO · 23 km
1 h 45 m
€169-224
SPU · 12 km
BarcelonaBCN
1 h 40 m
€44-74
FCO · 23 km
2 h 5 m
€108-177
SPU · 12 km
ViennaVIE
1 h 35 m
€66-127
FCO · 23 km
1 h 15 m
€233-281
SPU · 12 km
MunichMUC
1 h 30 m
€145-191
FCO · 23 km
1 h 25 m
no fares
SPU · 12 km
ZagrebZAG
1 h 20 m
no fares
FCO · 23 km
55 m
no fares
SPU · 12 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
8 h 45 m
€446-597
FCO · 23 km
9 h 0 m
no fares
SPU · 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

MeasureRomeSplit
Official languageItalianCroatian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation21 m0 m
Main airportRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre230 non-stop destinationsSplit Saint Jerome Airport (SPU)12 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureRomeSplit
City population2,748,109160,577
People per km²2,135–
Museums within 10 km17711
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km74
Distinct cuisines in the centre6531
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Rome or Split somewhere new.

Browse every destination we have measured

Sources

© OpenStreetMap contributors, data available under the Open Database Licence. Place counts include data from Overture Maps Foundation (CDLA Permissive 2.0), assembled from Meta, Microsoft, Foursquare and other providers. Notable-place counts from Wikidata (CC0), weighted by Wikipedia language editions. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

Scores follow rubric v2; snapshot generated 2026-08-31. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.