VacationSelector

Kathmandu or Sofia?

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 Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
Sofia

Photo: Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

Sofia
✓ Best match
51
match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts 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.

KathmanduSofia
Beaches & swimming. Sofia leads by 1 points.1
Food & drink. Kathmandu leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 22 points.22
Nightlife. Sofia leads by 14 points.14
Nature & outdoors. Sofia leads by 10 points.10
Day trips. Sofia leads by 4 points.4
Good for families. Sofia leads by 20 points.20
Getting around. Sofia leads by 40 points.40
Shopping & style. Kathmandu leads by 17 points.17
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 19 points.19
Live music & performing arts. Sofia leads by 22 points.22
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu and Sofia are level on 45.
0255075100

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

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
JulyKathmanduSofia
Daytime high29 °C28 °C
Night-time low20 °C15 °C
Rainfall in the month384 mm64 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
Sofia
4
7
11
17
21
25
28
28
23
18
11
5
Rainfall, mm
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Sofia
36
36
45
52
73
78
64
56
54
56
38
41
Daylight, hours per day
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sofia
9
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
Sofia
3
4
6
6
8
9
10
10
7
5
3
2

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromKathmanduSofia
IstanbulIST, SAW
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
1 h 15 m
€116-123
SOF · 8 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
4 h 45 m
€298-357
1 stop
SOF · 8 km
DohaDOH
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
4 h 25 m
no fares
SOF · 8 km
BangkokBKK, DMK
3 h 15 m
€389-511
KTM · 4 km
10 h 0 m
€614-660
2 stops
SOF · 8 km
Abu DhabiAUH
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
4 h 45 m
no fares
SOF · 8 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

MeasureKathmanduSofia
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 m560 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre96 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-15 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduSofia
City population845,7671,213,134
People per km²17,1212,466
Museums within 10 km942
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu or Sofia 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.