VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Florence and the Arno, Florence
FlorenceFlorence and the Arno

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Florence by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License.

Alicante or Florence?

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
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Florence for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Florence’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, Florence 14: Alicante leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Florence 74: Florence leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Florence 94: Florence leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Florence 42: Alicante leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Florence 58: Alicante leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Florence 98: Florence leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Florence 45: Alicante leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Florence 78: Florence leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Florence 72: Florence leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Florence 35: Alicante leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Florence 58: Florence leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Florence 42: Florence leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Alicante
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Florence
59match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping 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

Florence in July

32 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
37 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteFlorence

Where the figures come from

Florence 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.

Florence's sunshine is measured 71 km from the centre, at Pisa / S. Giusto.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Florence: 1995-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Firenze / Peretola (5.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteFlorence
Official languageSpanishItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m50 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsFlorence Airport, Peretola (FLR)6 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteFlorence
City population366,221360,930
People per km²1,8193,528
Museums within 10 km8141
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km24
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 Florence 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.