VacationSelector

Kathmandu 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.

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
Plovdiv

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

Your match

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on shopping and prices with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50
match

Wins on getting around and families 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.

KathmanduPlovdiv
Beaches & swimming. Plovdiv leads by 3 points.3
Food & drink. Kathmandu leads by 5 points.5
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 16 points.16
Nightlife. Plovdiv leads by 6 points.6
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 2 points.2
Day trips. Plovdiv leads by 14 points.14
Good for families. Plovdiv leads by 20 points.20
Getting around. Plovdiv leads by 40 points.40
Shopping & style. Kathmandu leads by 22 points.22
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 19 points.19
Live music & performing arts. Plovdiv leads by 14 points.14
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 1 points.1
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu 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
JulyKathmanduPlovdiv
Daytime high29 °C31 °C
Night-time low20 °C18 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm40 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day10 hours a day
Daylight14 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
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Plovdiv
5
9
14
19
24
28
31
31
26
19
13
7
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Plovdiv
65
63
61
53
67
62
40
25
48
66
59
81
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Plovdiv
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Sunshine, hours per day
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7
Plovdiv
3
4
5
6
8
9
10
10
7
5
3
2

Where the figures come from

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduPlovdiv
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
1 h 15 m
€116-123
SOF · 125 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
4 h 45 m
€298-357
1 stop
SOF · 125 km
DohaDOH
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
4 h 25 m
no fares
SOF · 125 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
10 h 0 m
€614-660
2 stops
SOF · 125 km
Abu DhabiAUH
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
4 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 2026-10 to 2026-12, 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

MeasureKathmanduPlovdiv
Official languageNepaliBulgarian
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101112
Elevation1,300 m172 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPlovdiv
City population845,767333,994
People per km²17,1213,274
Museums within 10 km918
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 Kathmandu 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.