VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • families
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Havana 64, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Havana and Orange Beach are level on 40.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Orange Beach 7: Havana leads by 70 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Orange Beach 30: Havana leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Orange Beach 60: Orange Beach leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Orange Beach 50: Orange Beach leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Orange Beach 15: Havana leads by 23 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Orange Beach 25: Havana leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Orange Beach 38: Havana leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Orange Beach 32: Havana leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Orange Beach 32: Orange Beach leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Havana and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Havana
Best match
47match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on families 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.

Havana in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
118 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaOrange Beach

Where the figures come from

Havana 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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 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

MeasureHavanaOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105911
Elevation59 m4 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaOrange Beach
City population2,492,6188,095
People per km²3,423196
Museums within 10 km120
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.