VacationSelector
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow
GlasgowKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

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

Glasgow 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 Glasgow for

  • shopping
  • live music and the arts
  • families

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

Choose Sofia for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

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. Glasgow 14, Sofia 5: Glasgow leads by 9 points.
Food & drink. Glasgow 52, Sofia 45: Glasgow leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Glasgow 62, Sofia 60: Glasgow leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Glasgow 66, Sofia 50: Glasgow leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Glasgow 75, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Glasgow 76, Sofia 60: Glasgow leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Glasgow 58, Sofia 40: Glasgow leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Glasgow 66, Sofia 65: Glasgow leads by 1 points.
Shopping & style. Glasgow 64, Sofia 38: Glasgow leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Glasgow 46, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Glasgow 72, Sofia 50: Glasgow leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Glasgow 28, Sofia 45: Sofia leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Glasgow and Sofia.

Your match

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

Glasgow
Best match
57match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Sofia
51match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Glasgow in July

19 °Cdaytime high
11 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
15 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GlasgowSofia

Where the figures come from

Glasgow 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.

Glasgow's sunshine is measured 90 km from the centre, at Eskdalemuir.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Glasgow: 1991-2020 normals, Glasgow Airport (11.5 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGlasgowSofia
Official languageEnglishBulgarian
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation21 m560 m
Main airportGlasgow Airport (GLA)11 km from centre95 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureGlasgowSofia
City population626,4101,213,134
People per km²1902,466
Museums within 10 km2942
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Glasgow or Sofia somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.