VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Orange Beach 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 Orange Beach for

  • beaches
  • families

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

Choose Plovdiv for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • prices

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. Orange Beach 86, Plovdiv 7: Orange Beach leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Plovdiv 50: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Plovdiv 66: Plovdiv leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Plovdiv 68: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Plovdiv 70: Plovdiv leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Plovdiv 40: Orange Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Plovdiv 65: Plovdiv leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Plovdiv 33: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Plovdiv 78: Plovdiv leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Plovdiv 42: Plovdiv leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Plovdiv 44: Plovdiv leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Plovdiv.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Plovdiv
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachPlovdiv

Where the figures come from

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. Orange Beach: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (10.5 km from centre). Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachPlovdiv
Official language-Bulgarian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m172 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachPlovdiv
City population8,095333,994
People per km²1963,274
Museums within 10 km018
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Orange Beach or Plovdiv 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.