VacationSelector
The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Sofia
SofiaThe Alexander Nevsky Cathedral
The Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal, Venice
VeniceThe Rialto Bridge on the Grand Canal

Photos: Sofia by Jose Ligero Loarte, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Venice by David Vives, Pexels License.

Sofia or Venice?

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 Sofia for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife

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

Choose Venice for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Venice’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. Sofia 5, Venice 56: Venice leads by 51 points.
Food & drink. Sofia 45, Venice 60: Venice leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Sofia 60, Venice 94: Venice leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Sofia 50, Venice 27: Sofia leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sofia 80, Venice 45: Sofia leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Sofia 60, Venice 86: Venice leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Sofia 40, Venice 45: Venice leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Sofia 65, Venice 68: Venice leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Sofia 38, Venice 57: Venice leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Sofia 78, Venice 20: Sofia leads by 58 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sofia 50, Venice 62: Venice leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sofia 45, Venice 40: Sofia leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sofia and Venice.

Your match

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

Sofia
51match

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

Venice
Best match
55match

Wins on beaches 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.

Sofia in July

28 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
64 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Venice in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
61 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
SofiaVenice

Where the figures come from

Venice 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.

Venice's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Treviso / S. Angelo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sofia: 1991-2020 normals, Sofia Observ. (7.3 km from centre). Venice: 1991-2020 normals, Venezia / Tessera (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSofiaVenice
Official languageBulgarianItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation560 m2 m
Main airportSofia Airport (SOF)8 km from centre97 non-stop destinationsVenice Marco Polo Airport (VCE)7 km from centre103 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureSofiaVenice
City population1,213,134250,369
People per km²2,466602
Museums within 10 km4252
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sofia or Venice 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.