VacationSelector

Cairo or Plovdiv?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The pyramids of Giza, Cairo
Cairo

Photo: Ricardo Liberato, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped

The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
Plovdiv

Photo: Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Cairo
50
match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

CairoPlovdiv
Beaches & swimming. Cairo leads by 3 points.3
Food & drink. Cairo leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Cairo leads by 30 points.30
Nightlife. Cairo leads by 6 points.6
Nature & outdoors. Plovdiv leads by 38 points.38
Day trips. Plovdiv leads by 4 points.4
Good for families. Plovdiv leads by 8 points.8
Getting around. Plovdiv leads by 30 points.30
Shopping & style. Cairo leads by 25 points.25
Affordability. Cairo leads by 17 points.17
Live music & performing arts. Cairo leads by 8 points.8
Wellness & relaxation. Plovdiv leads by 29 points.29
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyCairoPlovdiv
Daytime high36 °C31 °C
Night-time low23 °C18 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm40 mm
Sunshine12 hours a day10 hours a day
Daylight14 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Cairo
19
21
24
29
33
35
36
36
34
30
26
21
Plovdiv
5
9
14
19
24
28
31
31
26
19
13
7
Rainfall, mm
Cairo
6
5
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
Plovdiv
65
63
61
53
67
62
40
25
48
66
59
81
Daylight, hours per day
Cairo
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Plovdiv
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Cairo
7
7
9
9
11
11
12
11
10
10
9
7
Plovdiv
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
10
7
5
3
2

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv's rainfall is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCairoPlovdiv
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
4 h 50 m
€240-288
CAI · 17 km
3 h 5 m
€70-85
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
3 h 45 m
€147-173
CAI · 17 km
2 h 5 m
€56-159
SOF · 125 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 10 m
€154-167
CAI · 17 km
1 h 15 m
€116-123
SOF · 125 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
4 h 5 m
€245-328
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
2 h 20 m
€130-210
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
ViennaVIE
3 h 25 m
€263-340
CAI · 17 km
1 h 35 m
€74-99
SOF · 125 km
RomeFCO, CIA
3 h 10 m
€280-302
CAI · 17 km
1 h 45 m
€55-68
SOF · 125 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
4 h 25 m
€249-480
CAI · 17 km
2 h 45 m
€99-135
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
BarcelonaBCN
4 h 5 m
€267-335
CAI · 17 km
2 h 45 m
€88-145
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
MadridMAD
4 h 35 m
€274-412
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
3 h 20 m
€114-128
SOF · 125 km
AthensATH
2 h 0 m
€192-237
CAI · 17 km
1 h 15 m
€113-165
1 stop
SOF · 125 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureCairoPlovdiv
Official languageArabicBulgarian
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation23 m172 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoPlovdiv
City population9,801,536333,994
People per km²18,5643,274
Museums within 10 km4818
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cairo or Plovdiv somewhere new.

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Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.