VacationSelector
A classic car in front of the Capitolio, Havana
HavanaA classic car in front of the Capitolio
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Havana by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Havana 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 Havana for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

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. Havana 64, Plovdiv 7: Havana leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Havana 40, Plovdiv 50: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Havana 77, Plovdiv 66: Havana leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Havana 60, Plovdiv 42: Havana leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Havana 34, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Havana 38, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Havana 34, Plovdiv 40: Plovdiv leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Havana 38, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Havana 30, Plovdiv 33: Plovdiv leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Havana 58, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Havana 74, Plovdiv 42: Havana leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Havana 22, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Havana
47match

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

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
HavanaPlovdiv

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.

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. Havana: 1991-2020 normals, Casa Blanca, La Habana (3.5 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHavanaPlovdiv
Official languageSpanishBulgarian
CurrencyCuban Peso (CUP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB110 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 106, ambulance 104, fire 105112
Elevation59 m172 m
Main airportJosé Martí International Airport (HAV)17 km from centre21 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHavanaPlovdiv
City population2,492,618333,994
People per km²3,4233,274
Museums within 10 km1218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Havana 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). 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under 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. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. 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 figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.