VacationSelector
The Explanada de España, Alicante
AlicanteThe Explanada de España
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo

Photos: Alicante by Emilio Sánchez Hernández, Pexels License; Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Alicante or Milan?

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 Milan for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Milan’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, Milan 20: Alicante leads by 62 points.
Food & drink. Alicante 67, Milan 78: Milan leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Alicante 46, Milan 78: Milan leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Alicante 60, Milan 66: Milan leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alicante 63, Milan 65: Milan leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Alicante 72, Milan 91: Milan leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Alicante 68, Milan 55: Alicante leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Alicante 66, Milan 79: Milan leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Alicante 44, Milan 92: Milan leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Alicante 60, Milan 33: Alicante leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alicante 37, Milan 82: Milan leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alicante 40, Milan 42: Milan leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Alicante
59match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AlicanteMilan

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alicante: 1991-2020 normals, Alicante (2.8 km from centre). Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlicanteMilan
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 m138 m
Main airportAlicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport (ALC)10 km from centre126 non-stop destinationsMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlicanteMilan
City population366,2211,354,196
People per km²1,8197,453
Museums within 10 km888
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 Milan 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.