VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Bath or Sorrento?

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 Bath for

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

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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. Bath 10, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Sorrento 32: Bath leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Sorrento 28: Bath leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Sorrento 42: Bath leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Sorrento 58: Bath leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Sorrento 38: Bath leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Sorrento 32: Sorrento leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Sorrento 20: Bath leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Sorrento 48: Bath leads by 30 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bath
51match

Wins on culture and sights and wellness with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

Wins on beaches 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.

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
BathSorrento

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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.

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathSorrento
Official languageEnglishItalian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation132 m50 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathSorrento
City population94,09215,407
People per km²3,2451,541
Museums within 10 km176
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Sorrento 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.