Barcelona or Paris?

841 km apart, in Spain and France. 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.

• Barcelona Spain · best Jun, Jul, Aug
• Paris France · best May, Jul, Aug

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 — Barcelona: moderate, about 65% of the United States; Paris: moderate, about 77% of the United States.
• Currency — Barcelona: Q4916; Paris: Q4916.
• Plugs — Barcelona: type C and F, 230 V; Paris: type C and E, 230 / 400 V.
• Driving — Barcelona: on the right; Paris: on the right.
• Travel advice — Barcelona: no advice against travel; Paris: 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

841 km as the crow flies, about 1h 57m in the air.By train, about 7h 19m · TGV INOUI 9708 · 1. By bus, about 8h 50m · FlixBus N728 · TGV INOUI 6920. By road, 1,058 km and about 10h 14m.

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

• Barcelona or Amsterdam
• Barcelona or Athens
• Barcelona or Budapest
• Barcelona or Lisbon
• Barcelona or London
• Barcelona or Prague
• Barcelona or Rome
• Barcelona or Vienna
• Barcelona or Zurich
• Paris or Amsterdam
• Paris or Athens
• Paris or Budapest

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.