VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

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

Alicante or Galway?

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 Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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, Galway 28: Alicante leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Galway 45: Alicante leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Galway 33: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Galway 50: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Galway 78: Galway leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Galway 56: Alicante leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Galway 42: Alicante leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Galway 58: Alicante leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Galway 38: Alicante leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Galway 28: Alicante leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Galway 57: Galway leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Galway 28: Alicante leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Galway.

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 prices with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteGalway
Official languageSpanishEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation3 m25 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteGalway
City population366,22183,456
People per km²1,8191,563
Museums within 10 km84
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Galway 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.