VacationSelector
The Dzhumaya Mosque, Plovdiv
PlovdivThe Dzhumaya Mosque
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences

Photos: Plovdiv by Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License.

Plovdiv or Valencia?

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 Plovdiv for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Valencia for

  • beaches
  • families
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Valencia’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. Plovdiv 7, Valencia 78: Valencia leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Plovdiv 50, Valencia 74: Valencia leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Plovdiv 66, Valencia 68: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Plovdiv 42, Valencia 66: Valencia leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Plovdiv 68, Valencia 60: Plovdiv leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Plovdiv and Valencia are level on 70.
Good for families. Plovdiv 40, Valencia 75: Valencia leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Plovdiv 65, Valencia 76: Valencia leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Plovdiv 33, Valencia 57: Valencia leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Plovdiv 78, Valencia 57: Plovdiv leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Plovdiv 42, Valencia 55: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Plovdiv 44, Valencia 42: Plovdiv leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Plovdiv and Valencia.

Your match

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

Plovdiv
50match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Valencia in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
PlovdivValencia

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. Plovdiv: 1997-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Plovdiv (1.2 km from centre). Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePlovdivValencia
Official languageBulgarianSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation172 m15 m
Main airportPlovdiv International Airport (PDV)12 km from centre8 non-stop destinationsValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePlovdivValencia
City population333,994840,792
People per km²3,2746,242
Museums within 10 km1845
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Plovdiv or Valencia 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.