VacationSelector
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Monaco or Sorrento?

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 Monaco for

  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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. Monaco 68, Sorrento 60: Monaco leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Monaco 57, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Monaco 55, Sorrento 32: Monaco leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Monaco 48, Sorrento 28: Monaco leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Monaco 70, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Monaco 84, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 11 points.
Good for families. Monaco 60, Sorrento 42: Monaco leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Monaco 78, Sorrento 58: Monaco leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Monaco 52, Sorrento 38: Monaco leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Monaco 3, Sorrento 32: Sorrento leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Monaco 63, Sorrento 20: Monaco leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Monaco 55, Sorrento 48: Monaco leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Monaco and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Monaco
Best match
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MonacoSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMonacoSorrento
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCEF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation68 m50 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMonacoSorrento
City population38,85715,407
People per km²18,5031,541
Museums within 10 km146
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km25
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Monaco or Sorrento 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). 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). 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. Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), 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.