VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Limassol 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 Limassol for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • 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. Limassol 77, Plovdiv 7: Limassol leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Plovdiv 50: Limassol leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Plovdiv 42: Limassol leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Plovdiv 70: Limassol leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Plovdiv 40: Limassol leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol 42, Plovdiv 33: Limassol leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Limassol
52match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Plovdiv
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °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

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LimassolPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

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. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolPlovdiv
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekBulgarian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m172 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolPlovdiv
City population107,970333,994
People per km²2,4053,274
Museums within 10 km218
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Limassol or Plovdiv 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. 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.