VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The Hofburg and Heldenplatz, Vienna
ViennaThe Hofburg and Heldenplatz

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Vienna by C.Stadler/Bwag, CC BY-SA 3.0 AT, cropped.

Stockholm or Vienna?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Stockholm for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Stockholm’s own page.

Choose Vienna for

  • live music and the arts
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Vienna’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Stockholm 40, Vienna 27: Stockholm leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Vienna 68: Vienna leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Vienna 89: Vienna leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Vienna 50: Stockholm leads by 7 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Vienna 62: Stockholm leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Vienna 74: Vienna leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Vienna 77: Stockholm leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Vienna 90: Vienna leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Vienna 62: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Vienna 44: Vienna leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Vienna 96: Vienna leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Vienna 58: Vienna leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Stockholm and Vienna.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Stockholm
64match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Vienna
66match

Wins on live music and the arts and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 hdaylight a day

Vienna in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
78 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmVienna

Where the figures come from

Stockholm has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Vienna: 1991-2020 normals, Wien / Hohe Warte (4.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmVienna
Official languageSwedishGerman, Austrian Sign Language
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation22 m151 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsVienna International Airport (VIE)18 km from centre202 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmVienna
City population984,7482,028,289
People per km²5,2604,890
Museums within 10 km266152
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.