VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cork or Orange Beach?

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 Cork for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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. Cork 25, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 61 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Orange Beach 40: Cork leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Orange Beach 7: Cork leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Orange Beach 30: Cork leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Orange Beach 60: Cork leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Orange Beach 50: Cork leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Orange Beach 15: Cork leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Orange Beach 25: Cork leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Orange Beach 38: Orange Beach leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Orange Beach 32: Cork leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Cork
Best match
45match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
CorkOrange Beach

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkOrange Beach
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m4 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkOrange Beach
City population222,3338,095
People per km²5,961196
Museums within 10 km50
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cork or Orange Beach 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.