Search
Weekly note

Madrid or Rome?

1,331 km apart, in Spain and Italy. 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.

Madrid is the better pick in February to June and September to November; Rome in July to August; either in December to January.

Month by month

Month JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Madrid 10° 6d 14° 4d 16° 9d 20° 8d 24° 5d 30° 4d 34° 1d 34° 1d 27° 5d 22° 7d 15° 6d 11° 5d
Rome 13° 8d 14° 7d 16° 8d 18° 6d 22° 7d 27° 2d 30° 2d 30° 3d 26° 7d 22° 8d 17° 12d 14° 9d
Pick eitherMadridMadridMadridMadridMadridRomeRomeMadridMadridMadrideither

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

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

1,331 km as the crow flies, about 2h 32m in the air.Nonstop, about 20 a day · 8 airlines. By train, about 21h 47m · AVE INT · FlixBus N778. By bus, about 21h 06m · FlixBus N758 · AVE 03171. By road, 1,915 km and about 19h 17m.

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

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.