VacationSelector
The old harbour in Kaleiçi, Antalya
AntalyaThe old harbour in Kaleiçi
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico

Photos: Antalya by Furkan Tumer, Pexels License; Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Antalya or Gulf Shores?

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 Antalya for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • wellness

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

Choose Gulf Shores for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Gulf Shores’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. Antalya 82, Gulf Shores 84: Gulf Shores leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Antalya 57, Gulf Shores 38: Antalya leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Antalya 55, Gulf Shores 12: Antalya leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Antalya 48, Gulf Shores 32: Antalya leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Antalya 83, Gulf Shores 52: Antalya leads by 31 points.
Day trips. Antalya 78, Gulf Shores 52: Antalya leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Antalya 74, Gulf Shores 75: Gulf Shores leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Antalya 50, Gulf Shores 15: Antalya leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Antalya 44, Gulf Shores 22: Antalya leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Antalya 62, Gulf Shores 42: Antalya leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Antalya 40, Gulf Shores 27: Antalya leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Antalya 62, Gulf Shores 28: Antalya leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Antalya and Gulf Shores.

Your match

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

Antalya
Best match
61match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Antalya in July

35 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AntalyaGulf Shores

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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. Antalya: 1991-2020 normals, Antalya (23.4 km from centre). Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAntalyaGulf Shores
Official languageTurkish-
CurrencyTurkish Lira (TRY)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+3UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation30 m2 m
Main airportAntalya International Airport (AYT)9 km from centre172 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAntalyaGulf Shores
City population2,426,35615,014
People per km²1,712207
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Antalya or Gulf Shores 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.