VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Bodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour, Bodrum
BodrumBodrum Castle and gulets in the harbour

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Bodrum by Serhio Magpie, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Alicante or Bodrum?

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

  • getting around
  • prices
  • food and drink

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

Choose Bodrum for

  • wellness
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Bodrum’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, Bodrum 80: Alicante leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Bodrum 60: Alicante leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Bodrum 45: Alicante leads by 1 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Bodrum 65: Bodrum leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Bodrum 60: Alicante leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Alicante and Bodrum are level on 72.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Bodrum 66: Alicante leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Bodrum 42: Alicante leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Bodrum 45: Bodrum leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Bodrum 38: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Bodrum 32: Alicante leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Bodrum 52: Bodrum leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Bodrum.

Your match

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

Alicante
Best match
59match

Wins on getting around and prices with your weighting.

Bodrum
55match

Wins on wellness and nightlife 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

Bodrum in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteBodrum

Where the figures come from

Bodrum's temperatures are measured 43 km from the centre, at Kos Airport.

Bodrum 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). Bodrum: 1993-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kos Airport (42.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteBodrum
Official languageSpanishTurkish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Turkish Lira (TRY)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+3
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m10 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsMilas Bodrum International Airport (BJV)32 km from centre83 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteBodrum
City population366,221175,000
People per km²1,819314
Museums within 10 km84
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Bodrum 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.