Budapest or Paris?

1,262 km apart, in Hungary 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.

• Budapest Hungary · best Apr, 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 — Budapest: cheap, about 52% of the United States; Paris: moderate, about 77% of the United States.
• Currency — Budapest: Forint; Paris: Q4916.
• Plugs — Budapest: type C and F, 230 V; Paris: type C and E, 230 / 400 V.
• Driving — Budapest: on the right; Paris: on the right.
• Travel advice — Budapest: 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

1,262 km as the crow flies, about 2h 27m in the air.Nonstop, about 5 a day · 3 airlines. By train, about 13h 54m · RJX 261 · ICE 9591. By bus, about 15h 00m · FlixBus 902 · ICE 569. By road, 1,516 km and about 13h 39m.

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

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

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.