VacationSelector
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fukuoka or Plovdiv?

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 Fukuoka for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Plovdiv’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. Fukuoka 50, Plovdiv 7: Fukuoka leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Fukuoka 82, Plovdiv 50: Fukuoka leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Fukuoka 50, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Fukuoka 60, Plovdiv 42: Fukuoka leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fukuoka 62, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Fukuoka 84, Plovdiv 70: Fukuoka leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Fukuoka 78, Plovdiv 40: Fukuoka leads by 38 points.
Getting around. Fukuoka 82, Plovdiv 65: Fukuoka leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Fukuoka 65, Plovdiv 33: Fukuoka leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Fukuoka 58, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Fukuoka 45, Plovdiv 42: Fukuoka leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fukuoka 60, Plovdiv 44: Fukuoka leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fukuoka and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

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.

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Plovdiv in July

31 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
44 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
FukuokaPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Plovdiv 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.

Plovdiv's sunshine is measured 75 km from the centre, at Kurdjali.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFukuokaPlovdiv
Official languageJapaneseBulgarian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation8 m172 m
Main airportFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureFukuokaPlovdiv
City population1,603,043333,994
People per km²4,7153,274
Museums within 10 km2318
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Fukuoka or Plovdiv 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.

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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.