VacationSelector
The Flame Towers from the seafront, Baku
BakuThe Flame Towers from the seafront
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Baku by Zulfugar Karimov, Pexels License; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Baku or Paphos?

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 Baku for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

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

Choose Paphos for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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. Baku 40, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Baku 60, Paphos 45: Baku leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Baku and Paphos are level on 62.
Nightlife. Baku 42, Paphos 38: Baku leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Baku 30, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Baku 45, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Baku 45, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Baku 58, Paphos 40: Baku leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Baku 48, Paphos 25: Baku leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Baku 64, Paphos 52: Baku leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Baku 52, Paphos 22: Baku leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Baku 30, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Baku
48match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Baku in July

30 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BakuPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Baku: 1991-2020 normals, Mashtaga (23.2 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBakuPaphos
Official languageAzerbaijani, Azerbaijani Sign LanguageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyAzerbaijan Manat (AZN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+4UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number102 or 112112
Elevation-28 m72 m
Main airportHeydar Aliyev International Airport (GYD)22 km from centre79 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureBakuPaphos
City population2,300,50035,961
People per km²1,0751,987
Museums within 10 km504
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Baku or Paphos 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.