VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • prices

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. Galway 28, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Orange Beach 40: Galway leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Orange Beach 7: Galway leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Orange Beach 30: Galway leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Orange Beach 60: Galway leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Orange Beach 50: Galway leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Orange Beach 15: Galway leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Orange Beach 25: Galway leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Orange Beach 38: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Orange Beach 32: Galway leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Galway
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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 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
GalwayOrange Beach

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 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

MeasureGalwayOrange 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
Elevation25 m4 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayOrange Beach
City population83,4568,095
People per km²1,563196
Museums within 10 km40
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 Galway 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.