VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla, AlUla
AlUlaThe Qasr al-Farid tomb at Hegra near AlUla

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; AlUla by Richard.hargas, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alicante or AlUla?

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 Alicante for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose AlUla for

  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on AlUla’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. Alicante 82, AlUla 3: Alicante leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, AlUla 28: Alicante leads by 39 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, AlUla 70: AlUla leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, AlUla 5: Alicante leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, AlUla 72: AlUla leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, AlUla 20: Alicante leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, AlUla 35: Alicante leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, AlUla 15: Alicante leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, AlUla 15: Alicante leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, AlUla 18: Alicante leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, AlUla 28: Alicante leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, AlUla 45: AlUla leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and AlUla.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

AlUla
30match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Alicante in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

AlUla in July

43 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteAlUla

Where the figures come from

AlUla 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). AlUla: 2010-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Alula / Al ‘Ulá (23.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteAlUla
Official languageSpanishArabic
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Saudi Riyal (SAR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112 or 911
Elevation3 m692 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsAl-Ula International Airport (ULH)24 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteAlUla
City population366,22132,413
People per km²1,819-
Museums within 10 km82
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or AlUla 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.