VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Paphos or Wilmington?

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 Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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. Paphos 76, Wilmington 73: Paphos leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Wilmington 40: Paphos leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Wilmington 58: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Wilmington 45: Paphos leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Wilmington 62: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Wilmington 28: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Wilmington 42: Paphos leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Wilmington 33: Paphos leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on live music and the arts and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosWilmington

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosWilmington
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m9 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosWilmington
City population35,961115,451
People per km²1,987839
Museums within 10 km42
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos or Wilmington 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.