VacationSelector
The Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens, Adelaide
AdelaideThe Adelaide skyline and the footbridge over the River Torrens
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Adelaide by Ardash Muradian, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Adelaide or Sorrento?

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 Adelaide for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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. Adelaide 68, Sorrento 60: Adelaide leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Adelaide 72, Sorrento 60: Adelaide leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Adelaide 48, Sorrento 32: Adelaide leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Adelaide 42, Sorrento 28: Adelaide leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Adelaide 66, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Adelaide 60, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Adelaide 70, Sorrento 42: Adelaide leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Adelaide 57, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Adelaide 44, Sorrento 38: Adelaide leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Adelaide 40, Sorrento 32: Adelaide leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Adelaide 63, Sorrento 20: Adelaide leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Adelaide 42, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Adelaide and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Adelaide
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Sorrento
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.

Adelaide in July

16 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
72 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
14 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AdelaideSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Adelaide: 1991-2020 normals, Adelaide (West Terrace / ngayirdapira) (3.1 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAdelaideSorrento
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9:30, UTC+10:30 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation1 m50 m
Main airportAdelaide International Airport (ADL)6 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAdelaideSorrento
City population1,387,29015,407
People per km²1,0711,541
Museums within 10 km136
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Adelaide or Sorrento 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.