VacationSelector

Cairo or Sofia?

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 Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
Sofia

Photo: Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cairo
50
match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Sofia
51
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.

CairoSofia
Beaches & swimming. Cairo leads by 5 points.5
Food & drink. Cairo leads by 15 points.15
Culture & sights. Cairo leads by 36 points.36
Nightlife. Sofia leads by 2 points.2
Nature & outdoors. Sofia leads by 50 points.50
Day trips. Cairo leads by 6 points.6
Good for families. Sofia leads by 8 points.8
Getting around. Sofia leads by 30 points.30
Shopping & style. Cairo leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Cairo leads by 17 points.17
Live music & performing arts. Cairo and Sofia are level on 50.
Wellness & relaxation. Sofia leads by 30 points.30
0255075100

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

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
JulyCairoSofia
Daytime high36 °C28 °C
Night-time low23 °C15 °C
Rainfall in the month0 mm64 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
Sofia
4
7
11
17
21
25
28
28
23
18
11
5
Rainfall, mm
Cairo
6
5
10
1
1
0
0
0
0
1
1
7
Sofia
36
36
45
52
73
78
64
56
54
56
38
41
Daylight, hours per day
Cairo
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sofia
9
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
Sofia
3
4
6
6
8
9
10
10
7
5
3
2

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cairo: 1991-2020 normals, Helwan (21.9 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromCairoSofia
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
4 h 50 m
€240-288
CAI · 17 km
3 h 5 m
€70-85
1 stop
SOF · 8 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
3 h 45 m
€147-173
CAI · 17 km
2 h 5 m
€56-159
SOF · 8 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
2 h 10 m
€154-167
CAI · 17 km
1 h 15 m
€116-123
SOF · 8 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
4 h 5 m
€245-328
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
2 h 20 m
€130-210
1 stop
SOF · 8 km
ViennaVIE
3 h 25 m
€263-340
CAI · 17 km
1 h 35 m
€74-99
SOF · 8 km
RomeFCO, CIA
3 h 10 m
€280-302
CAI · 17 km
1 h 45 m
€55-68
SOF · 8 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
4 h 25 m
€249-480
CAI · 17 km
2 h 45 m
€99-135
1 stop
SOF · 8 km
BarcelonaBCN
4 h 5 m
€267-335
CAI · 17 km
2 h 45 m
€88-145
1 stop
SOF · 8 km
MadridMAD
4 h 35 m
€274-412
1 stop
CAI · 17 km
3 h 20 m
€114-128
SOF · 8 km
AthensATH
2 h 0 m
€192-237
CAI · 17 km
1 h 15 m
€113-165
1 stop
SOF · 8 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

MeasureCairoSofia
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 m560 m
Main airportCairo International Airport (CAI)17 km from centre127 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre96 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCairoSofia
City population9,801,5361,213,134
People per km²18,5642,466
Museums within 10 km4842
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21

Where else could you go?

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