VacationSelector
Castle Square and the Royal Castle, Warsaw
WarsawCastle Square and the Royal Castle
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Warsaw by Raymond Petrik, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Warsaw or York?

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 Warsaw for

  • nightlife
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose York for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Warsaw 12, York 14: York leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Warsaw 60, York 42: Warsaw leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Warsaw and York are level on 70.
Nightlife. Warsaw 66, York 36: Warsaw leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Warsaw 47, York 62: York leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Warsaw 52, York 80: York leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Warsaw 62, York 60: Warsaw leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Warsaw and York are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Warsaw 55, York 46: Warsaw leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Warsaw 64, York 38: Warsaw leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Warsaw 63, York 38: Warsaw leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Warsaw 35, York 34: Warsaw leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Warsaw and York.

Your match

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

Warsaw
Best match
55match

Wins on nightlife and prices with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Warsaw in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
WarsawYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWarsawYork
Official languagePolishEnglish
CurrencyZloty (PLN)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCE50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation118 m25 m
Main airportWarsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre172 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureWarsawYork
City population1,862,402208,400
People per km²3,601766
Museums within 10 km11724
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

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. 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.