VacationSelector
Waterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor, Newport Beach
Newport BeachWaterfront houses on Harbor Island in Newport Harbor
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

Photos: Newport Beach by Don Ramey Logan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Newport Beach or Sofia?

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 Newport Beach for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

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

Choose Sofia for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Sofia’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. Newport Beach 70, Sofia 5: Newport Beach leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Newport Beach 50, Sofia 45: Newport Beach leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Newport Beach 20, Sofia 60: Sofia leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Newport Beach 33, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Newport Beach 66, Sofia 80: Sofia leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Newport Beach 70, Sofia 60: Newport Beach leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Newport Beach 80, Sofia 40: Newport Beach leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Newport Beach 20, Sofia 65: Sofia leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Newport Beach 62, Sofia 38: Newport Beach leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Newport Beach 15, Sofia 78: Sofia leads by 63 points.
Live music & performing arts. Newport Beach 46, Sofia 50: Sofia leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Newport Beach 44, Sofia 45: Sofia leads by 1 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Newport Beach and Sofia.

Your match

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

Newport Beach
48match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Sofia
Best match
51match

Wins on prices and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Newport Beach in July

26 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
Newport BeachSofia

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Newport Beach: 1991-2020 (rainfall 1981-2010) normals, Santa Ana / Paularino (7.1 km from centre). Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNewport BeachSofia
Official language-Bulgarian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation3 m560 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)7 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureNewport BeachSofia
City population85,2391,213,134
People per km²6222,466
Museums within 10 km442
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Newport Beach 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. 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). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.