VacationSelector
Turquoise water off Giftun Island, Hurghada
HurghadaTurquoise water off Giftun Island
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Hurghada by Andrey Korchagin, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Hurghada 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 Hurghada for

  • beaches
  • families
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • day trips

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. Hurghada 84, Plovdiv 7: Hurghada leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Hurghada 34, Plovdiv 50: Plovdiv leads by 16 points.
Culture & sights. Hurghada 14, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. Hurghada 40, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hurghada 72, Plovdiv 68: Hurghada leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Hurghada 30, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 40 points.
Good for families. Hurghada 62, Plovdiv 40: Hurghada leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Hurghada 22, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 43 points.
Shopping & style. Hurghada 24, Plovdiv 33: Plovdiv leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Hurghada 80, Plovdiv 78: Hurghada leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hurghada 10, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hurghada and Plovdiv are level on 44.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hurghada and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Hurghada
43match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Hurghada in July

37 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
14 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

0204060JFMAMJJASOND
HurghadaPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

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. Hurghada: 1991-2020 normals, Hurguada (15.2 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHurghadaPlovdiv
Official languageArabicBulgarian
CurrencyEgyptian Pound (EGP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 122, ambulance 123, fire 180112
Elevation11 m172 m
Main airportHurghada International Airport (HRG)9 km from centre111 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureHurghadaPlovdiv
City population214,247333,994
People per km²-3,274
Museums within 10 km118
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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 Hurghada 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). 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. 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.