VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Orange Beach?

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 Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • nightlife

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

Choose Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Orange Beach’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. Madrid 5, Orange Beach 86: Orange Beach leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Orange Beach 40: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Orange Beach 7: Madrid leads by 79 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Orange Beach 30: Madrid leads by 55 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid and Orange Beach are level on 60.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Orange Beach 50: Madrid leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Orange Beach 75: Orange Beach leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Orange Beach 15: Madrid leads by 69 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Orange Beach 25: Madrid leads by 50 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Orange Beach 38: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Orange Beach 32: Madrid leads by 45 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Orange Beach 32: Madrid leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Orange Beach.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Orange Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
200 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridOrange Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridOrange Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m4 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridOrange Beach
City population3,506,7308,095
People per km²5,801196
Museums within 10 km880
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Orange Beach 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.