Dresden or Plovdiv?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on value for money and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Dresden and Plovdiv are level on 0.
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 22 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 267 km | 130 km |
| Water distance | — | — |
Places to eat. Dresden leads by 15 points.15
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 46 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 422 | 369 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 42 | 19 |
Museums & heritage. Dresden leads by 16 points.16
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 38 |
| Museums within 10 km | 66 | 26 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 34 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 52 | 100 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Dresden and Plovdiv are level on 42.
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 42 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 359 | 392 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 265 | 285 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 74 | 73 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 26 |
Nature & day trips. Dresden leads by 2 points.2
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 37 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 14 | 5 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 9 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 80 hectares | 125 hectares |
Good for families. Dresden leads by 28 points.28
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 31 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 32 | 5 |
| Park area within 2 km | 80 hectares | 125 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Dresden leads by 12 points.12
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 41 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 82 | 41 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Plovdiv leads by 39 points.39
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 99 |
| Price level global | 75.9 | 21.4 |
| Daily budget | €163 | €77 |
Year-round weather. Plovdiv leads by 3 points.3
| Dresden | Plovdiv | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4 °C to 26.2 °C | 5.4 °C to 31.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 31 mm to 83 mm | 25 mm to 81 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 2 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Dresden: 1991-2020 normals, Dresden-Strehlen (3.8 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Dresden | Plovdiv |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 1 h 40 m no fares LEJ · 113 km | 3 h 5 m €70-85 1 stop SOF · 125 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 1 h 25 m €57-79 PRG · 112 km | 2 h 5 m €56-159 SOF · 125 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 1 h 40 m €86-113 PRG · 112 km | 2 h 45 m €99-135 1 stop SOF · 125 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 1 h 45 m €62-97 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 45 m €55-68 SOF · 125 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 2 h 25 m €118-136 PRG · 112 km | 1 h 15 m €116-123 SOF · 125 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 1 h 5 m no fares DRS · 10 km | 2 h 20 m €130-210 1 stop SOF · 125 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 1 h 30 m €163-247 PRG · 112 km | 2 h 45 m no fares SOF · 125 km |
| ViennaVIE | 1 h 0 m €123-212 1 stop PRG · 112 km | 1 h 35 m €74-99 SOF · 125 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 4 h 0 m €208-225 1 stop BER · 147 km | 2 h 30 m €154-198 SOF · 125 km |
| BangkokBKK, DMK | 10 h 45 m no fares PRG · 112 km | 10 h 0 m €614-660 2 stops 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 2026-08 to 2026-10, 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
| Measure | Dresden | Plovdiv |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | German | Bulgarian |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 126 m | 172 m |
| Main airport | Dresden Airport (DRS)10 km from centre12 non-stop destinations | Plovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 15 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Dresden | Plovdiv |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 564,904 | 333,994 |
| People per km² | 1,720 | 3,274 |
| Museums within 10 km | 70 | 18 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 77 | 36 |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Dresden or Plovdiv somewhere new.