VacationSelector

Hanoi or Plovdiv?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Turtle Tower in Hoan Kiem Lake, Hanoi
Hanoi

Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped

The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
Plovdiv

Photo: Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Hanoi
52
match

Wins on food and drink and prices with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50
match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

HanoiPlovdiv
Beaches & swimming. Plovdiv leads by 1 points.1
Food & drink. Hanoi leads by 35 points.35
Culture & sights. Hanoi leads by 6 points.6
Nightlife. Hanoi leads by 8 points.8
Nature & outdoors. Plovdiv leads by 16 points.16
Day trips. Plovdiv leads by 12 points.12
Good for families. Plovdiv leads by 5 points.5
Getting around. Plovdiv leads by 29 points.29
Shopping & style. Hanoi leads by 17 points.17
Affordability. Hanoi leads by 20 points.20
Live music & performing arts. Plovdiv leads by 2 points.2
Wellness & relaxation. Hanoi leads by 2 points.2
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hanoi and Plovdiv.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyHanoiPlovdiv
Daytime high34 °C31 °C
Night-time low27 °C18 °C
Rainfall in the month311 mm40 mm
Sunshine6 hours a day10 hours a day
Daylight13 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Hanoi
19
22
24
28
32
35
34
33
32
30
27
23
Plovdiv
5
9
14
19
24
28
31
31
26
19
13
7
Rainfall, mm
Hanoi
23
23
52
72
204
272
311
310
179
109
73
30
Plovdiv
65
63
61
53
67
62
40
25
48
66
59
81
Daylight, hours per day
Hanoi
11
11
12
13
13
13
13
13
12
12
11
11
Plovdiv
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Hanoi
2
2
2
2
6
6
6
5
6
5
4
4
Plovdiv
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
10
7
5
3
2

Where the figures come from

Hanoi's sunshine is measured 86 km from the centre, at Phu Lien.

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

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hanoi: 1991-2020 normals, Ha Noi (4.4 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromHanoiPlovdiv
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
11 h 30 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
3 h 5 m
€70-85
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
10 h 55 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 20 m
€130-210
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
11 h 5 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 5 m
€56-159
SOF · 125 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
1 h 50 m
€134-146
HAN · 22 km
10 h 0 m
€614-660
2 stops
SOF · 125 km
MunichMUC
10 h 45 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 0 m
no fares
SOF · 125 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
9 h 25 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
1 h 15 m
€116-123
SOF · 125 km
Tel Aviv YafoTLV
8 h 55 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 30 m
€154-198
SOF · 125 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
11 h 25 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 45 m
€99-135
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
6 h 45 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
4 h 45 m
€298-357
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
AmsterdamAMS
11 h 5 m
no fares
HAN · 22 km
2 h 45 m
no fares
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

MeasureHanoiPlovdiv
Official languageVietnameseBulgarian
CurrencyDong (VND)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACFG220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 113, ambulance 115, fire 114112
Elevation10 m172 m
Main airportNoi Bai International Airport (HAN)22 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHanoiPlovdiv
City population8,717,600333,994
People per km²2,5953,274
Museums within 10 km1418
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hanoi 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.