VacationSelector
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hiroshima 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 Hiroshima for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • day trips

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

Choose Sofia for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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. Hiroshima 30, Sofia 5: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Hiroshima 66, Sofia 45: Hiroshima leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Hiroshima and Sofia are level on 60.
Nightlife. Hiroshima 45, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hiroshima 62, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Hiroshima 80, Sofia 60: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Hiroshima 60, Sofia 40: Hiroshima leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Hiroshima 74, Sofia 65: Hiroshima leads by 9 points.
Shopping & style. Hiroshima 52, Sofia 38: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Hiroshima 58, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hiroshima 38, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hiroshima 50, Sofia 45: Hiroshima leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hiroshima and Sofia.

Your match

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

Hiroshima
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Sofia
51match

Wins on prices 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.

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
HiroshimaSofia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHiroshimaSofia
Official languageJapaneseBulgarian
CurrencyYen (JPY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the regionCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+9UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, fire 119112
Elevation3 m560 m
Main airportHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHiroshimaSofia
City population1,198,0211,213,134
People per km²1,3242,466
Museums within 10 km1842
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hiroshima 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.