VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cannes or Sofia?

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 Cannes for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Sofia for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Sofia’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. Cannes 80, Sofia 5: Cannes leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Sofia 45: Cannes leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Sofia 60: Cannes leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Sofia 40: Cannes leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Sofia 65: Cannes leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Sofia 38: Cannes leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 56 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Sofia 45: Sofia leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Sofia.

Your match

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

Cannes
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Sofia
51match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CannesSofia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesSofia
Official languageFrenchBulgarian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m560 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesSofia
City population74,3501,213,134
People per km²3,7932,466
Museums within 10 km1642
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

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