VacationSelector
The white beach below the high-rise hotels, Orange Beach
Orange BeachThe white beach below the high-rise hotels
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona

Photos: Orange Beach by WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Orange Beach or Sedona?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Sedona for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Sedona’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, Sedona 16: Orange Beach leads by 70 points.
Food & drink. Orange Beach 40, Sedona 33: Orange Beach leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Orange Beach 7, Sedona 20: Sedona leads by 13 points.
Nightlife. Orange Beach 30, Sedona 8: Orange Beach leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Orange Beach 60, Sedona 93: Sedona leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Orange Beach 50, Sedona 55: Sedona leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Orange Beach 75, Sedona 42: Orange Beach leads by 33 points.
Getting around. Orange Beach 15, Sedona 22: Sedona leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Orange Beach 25, Sedona 34: Sedona leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Orange Beach 38, Sedona 18: Orange Beach leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Orange Beach 32, Sedona 13: Orange Beach leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Orange Beach 32, Sedona 82: Sedona leads by 50 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Orange Beach and Sedona.

Your match

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

Orange Beach
Best match
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Sedona
36match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Orange BeachSedona

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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.

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). Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureOrange BeachSedona
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7
Emergency number911911
Elevation4 m1,319 m
Main airportPensacola International Airport (PNS)41 km from centre27 non-stop destinationsPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre149 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureOrange BeachSedona
City population8,0959,684
People per km²196195
Museums within 10 km00
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 Sedona 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. 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.