VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Rozenhoedkaai and the Belfry, Bruges
BrugesRozenhoedkaai and the Belfry

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Bruges by Michielverbeek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Alicante or Bruges?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Bruges for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Bruges’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, Bruges 28: Alicante leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Bruges 56: Alicante leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Bruges 75: Bruges leads by 29 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Bruges 27: Alicante leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Bruges 40: Alicante leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Bruges 85: Bruges leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Bruges 54: Alicante leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Bruges 78: Bruges leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Bruges 45: Bruges leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Bruges 36: Alicante leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Bruges 40: Bruges leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante and Bruges are level on 40.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Bruges.

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.

Bruges
50match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips 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

Bruges in July

21 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteBruges

Where the figures come from

Bruges 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.

Bruges's sunshine is measured 37 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Bruges: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Zeebrugge / Zeemanshaard (15.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteBruges
Official languageSpanishFrench, German, Dutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m2 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)94 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteBruges
City population366,221118,509
People per km²1,819840
Museums within 10 km838
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alicante or Bruges 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.