VacationSelector
The blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud, Fes
FesThe blue gate of Bab Bou Jeloud
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Fes by Ideophagous, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fes 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 Fes for

  • shopping
  • wellness
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sofia for

  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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. Fes and Sofia are level on 5.
Food & drink. Fes 62, Sofia 45: Fes leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Fes 80, Sofia 60: Fes leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Fes 12, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 38 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fes 52, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Fes 62, Sofia 60: Fes leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Fes 22, Sofia 40: Sofia leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Fes 40, Sofia 65: Sofia leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Fes 68, Sofia 38: Fes leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Fes 80, Sofia 78: Fes leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fes 32, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fes 70, Sofia 45: Fes leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fes and Sofia.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Fes
49match

Wins on shopping and wellness with your weighting.

Sofia
51match

Wins on nightlife and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fes in July

36 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
FesSofia

Where the figures come from

Fes's station stands 171 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Fes has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Fes's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at Meknes.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fes: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Fes-Sais (12.4 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFesSofia
Official languageArabic, Standard Moroccan TamazightBulgarian
CurrencyMoroccan Dirham (MAD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 19/112, ambulance 15, fire 15112
Elevation408 m560 m
Main airportFes Saïss International Airport (FEZ)13 km from centre35 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFesSofia
City population1,167,8421,213,134
People per km²3,6502,466
Museums within 10 km242
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fes 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. 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. 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.