VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield, Manchester
ManchesterThe railway viaduct over the canal, Castlefield

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Manchester by IIya Kuzhekin, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Manchester?

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
  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Manchester for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Manchester’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, Manchester 9: Alicante leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Manchester 51: Alicante leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Manchester 50: Manchester leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Manchester 72: Manchester leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Manchester 64: Manchester leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Manchester 77: Manchester leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Manchester 58: Alicante leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Manchester 68: Manchester leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Manchester 62: Manchester leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Manchester 42: Alicante leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Manchester 74: Manchester leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Manchester 15: Alicante leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alicante and Manchester.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Manchester
54match

Wins on live music and the arts 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

Manchester in July

21 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
60 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteManchester

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Manchester: 1991-2020 normals, Manchester Airport (14.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteManchester
Official languageSpanishEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation3 m38 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsManchester Airport (MAN)15 km from centre211 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteManchester
City population366,221547,627
People per km²1,8194,737
Museums within 10 km828
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Manchester 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.