VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud

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

Alicante or Fes?

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
  • families

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

Choose Fes for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fes’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, Fes 5: Alicante leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Fes 62: Alicante leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Fes 80: Fes leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Fes 12: Alicante leads by 48 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Fes 52: Alicante leads by 11 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Fes 62: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Fes 22: Alicante leads by 46 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Fes 40: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Fes 68: Fes leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Fes 80: Fes leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Fes 32: Alicante leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Fes 70: Fes leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Fes.

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.

Fes
49match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness 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

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteFes

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes 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.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteFes
Official languageSpanishArabic, Standard Moroccan Tamazight
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Moroccan Dirham (MAD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1
Emergency number112Police 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15
Elevation3 m408 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteFes
City population366,2211,167,842
People per km²1,8193,650
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 Fes 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.