VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Orange Beach or Rotterdam?

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
  • nature and the outdoors
  • families

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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, Rotterdam 27: Orange Beach leads by 59 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 51 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Rotterdam 52: Rotterdam leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Rotterdam 44: Orange Beach leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Rotterdam 66: Orange Beach leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 30 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach and Rotterdam are level on 38.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
41match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Rotterdam
Best match
55match

Wins on getting around 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.

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

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam 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.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

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). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachRotterdam
Official language-Dutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation4 m10 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachRotterdam
City population8,095664,311
People per km²1962,080
Museums within 10 km040
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km05
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

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