Amsterdam or Madrid?

1,459 km apart, in Netherlands and Spain. Each is scored month by month on the same ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. This is where they part, and when.

• Amsterdam Netherlands · best Jun, Jul, Aug
• Madrid Spain · best May, Jun, Sep

Month by month

Each cell is that destination's own verdict for the month — sweet spot, ok or avoid — with its typical daily high and its rainy days ("11d"). The pick goes to the better verdict; with the same verdict, to the higher score, unless the two are within a whisker of each other, when it is either. A month both would avoid is neither. A dot marks a busy month.

Before you go

• Cost of living — Amsterdam: moderate, about 84% of the United States; Madrid: moderate, about 65% of the United States.
• Currency — Amsterdam: Q4916; Madrid: Q4916.
• Plugs — Amsterdam: type C and F, 230 V; Madrid: type C and F, 230 V.
• Driving — Amsterdam: on the right; Madrid: on the right.
• Travel advice — Amsterdam: no advice against travel; Madrid: no advice against travel.

Facts from Wikidata (CC0), the UK Foreign Office (Open Government Licence) and the World Bank. The advisory is written for British travellers; entry rules depend on your passport.

Between them

1,459 km as the crow flies, about 2h 42m in the air.Nonstop, about 14 a day · 10 airlines. By train, about 18h 21m · TGV INOUI 9706 · BlaBlaCar Bus. By bus, about 20h 20m · BlaBlaCar Bus · EST 9106. By road, 1,763 km and about 17h 02m.

The flight time is estimated from the distance. A road, train or bus is named only where it was measured — flights from AeroDataBox, roads from OpenRouteService, timetables via Transitous — and none of it is a fare; the searches on each destination's page are where prices live.

Also compared

• Amsterdam or Athens
• Amsterdam or Barcelona
• Amsterdam or Brussels
• Amsterdam or Budapest
• Amsterdam or Copenhagen
• Amsterdam or Dublin
• Amsterdam or Frankfurt
• Amsterdam or Lisbon
• Amsterdam or London
• Amsterdam or Munich
• Amsterdam or Paris
• Amsterdam or Prague

Every verdict here is the destination's own: ten years of climate readings, the public holidays that crowd it, and what the flight costs. The comparison is the difference between two pages, not a third opinion.