Vilnius or Warsaw?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and nightlife 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 Vilnius if compact heritage is the point: its museums sit tightly around the centre, and three UNESCO-listed places lie within day-trip reach, against one for Warsaw.
Choose Warsaw if you want more choice in a day: roughly twice as many restaurants, bars and notable places near the centre, five theme parks within reach and more protected land around the city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Vilnius and Warsaw are level on 0.
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 16 | 26 |
| Coast distance | 260 km | 238 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Warsaw leads by 12 points.12
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 72 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 537 | 1,222 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Vilnius leads by 8 points.8
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 63 |
| Museums within 10 km | 74 | 107 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 54 | 60 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 73 | 56 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Warsaw leads by 16 points.16
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 62 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 464 | 1,005 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 388 | 648 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 84 | 64 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 39 | 104 |
Nature & day trips. Warsaw leads by 14 points.14
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 41 | 55 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 27 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 19 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 107 hectares |
Good for families. Warsaw leads by 19 points.19
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 51 | 70 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 27 | 42 |
| Park area within 2 km | 88 hectares | 107 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Warsaw leads by 11 points.11
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 161 | 299 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Warsaw leads by 3 points.3
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 79 |
| Price level global | 53.1 | 49 |
| Daily budget | €125 | €133 |
Year-round weather. Warsaw leads by 6 points.6
| Vilnius | Warsaw | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 59 |
| Monthly daytime high | -1.5 °C to 24 °C | 0.9 °C to 25.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 41 mm to 90 mm | 29 mm to 83 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 6 |
Where they differ
Vilnius concentrates its heritage. It has 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Warsaw's 1, and its museums cluster more tightly around the centre, so a single walking day covers more of them.
Warsaw is the stronger city for families and for evenings: about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, 5 theme parks within reach where Vilnius has none, about twice as many places to drink and roughly three times as many nightclubs, most of them central. 27% of the land around Warsaw is protected, against 10% around Vilnius.
Where they are alike
Neither is a swimming destination. Both sit away from the sea, and although each has beaches nearby, neither has a month when the water reaches 21°C, so a swim is an occasional summer extra rather than a reason to book.
They are also close on cost and climate. The national price estimates behind them are near each other, €125 and €133 a day, and both have cold winters and a short warm summer peaking at 24-25°C.
Which traveller are you?
The traveller who plans days around museums and old streets should take Vilnius: its museums are packed tightly around the centre and walkable in a day, and three UNESCO-listed places sit within day-trip reach.
Families are better served in Warsaw, with about twice as many attractions near the centre, more park space close in, and five theme parks within reach where Vilnius has none.
Anyone travelling for eating and evenings should also pick Warsaw: about twice as many restaurants near the centre and twice as many places to drink, with roughly three times as many clubs, most of them central.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures are national estimates of restaurant and hotel prices, €125 for Lithuania and €133 for Poland, not measurements of either city. A capital can sit well above its own country average, and that gap can be larger than the difference between the two figures, so neither city can be called the cheaper trip on this basis.
The other tension is in summer. July is the warmest month in both and also the wettest, at 90mm in Vilnius, so the best month for warmth is not the driest. Beaches nearby do not add up to swimming either, since neither has water warm enough.
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. Vilnius: 1991-2020 normals, Vilnius (13 km from centre). Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre).
Vilnius suits a short summer window, June to August, when highs run 22-24°C. July is also its wettest month, at 90mm, so June is the steadier choice. Outside that the city is cold, with January highs at -1°C.
Warsaw's usable season runs wider. April already reaches 15°C and October still holds 13°C, and its spring and autumn months are markedly drier than Vilnius's, so shoulder-season trips are less likely to be rained on. Midsummer is similar in both, warm and wet.
Getting there
| Flying from | Vilnius | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 45 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 25 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| AntalyaAYT | 3 h 0 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 50 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 2 h 10 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 45 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 40 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 15 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 30 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 0 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 15 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 2 h 40 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 15 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| CopenhagenCPH | 1 h 35 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 1 h 25 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 15 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 2 h 0 m no fares WAW · 8 km |
| HurghadaHRG | 4 h 20 m no fares VNO · 6 km | 4 h 10 m no fares WAW · 8 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.
Before you go
| Measure | Vilnius | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Lithuanian | Polish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Zloty (PLN) |
| Sockets | CF220 V, 50 Hz | CE50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 98 m | 118 m |
| Main airport | Vilnius International Airport (VNO)6 km from centre83 non-stop destinations | Warsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre170 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Vilnius | Warsaw |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 581,475 | 1,862,402 |
| People per km² | 1,450 | 3,601 |
| Museums within 10 km | 30 | 117 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 54 | 76 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Vilnius or Warsaw somewhere new.