VacationSelector
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour
The pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach, St. Pete Beach
St. Pete BeachThe pink Don CeSar hotel seen from the beach

Photos: Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; St. Pete Beach by Jeffrey Eisen, Pexels License.

Sorrento or St. Pete Beach?

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 Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose St. Pete Beach for

  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Pete Beach’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. Sorrento 60, St. Pete Beach 87: St. Pete Beach leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Sorrento 60, St. Pete Beach 40: Sorrento leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Sorrento 32, St. Pete Beach 18: Sorrento leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Sorrento and St. Pete Beach are level on 28.
Nature & outdoors. Sorrento 80, St. Pete Beach 57: Sorrento leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Sorrento 95, St. Pete Beach 58: Sorrento leads by 37 points.
Good for families. Sorrento 42, St. Pete Beach 72: St. Pete Beach leads by 30 points.
Getting around. Sorrento 58, St. Pete Beach 30: Sorrento leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Sorrento 38, St. Pete Beach 20: Sorrento leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Sorrento and St. Pete Beach are level on 32.
Live music & performing arts. Sorrento and St. Pete Beach are level on 20.
Wellness & relaxation. Sorrento 48, St. Pete Beach 42: Sorrento leads by 6 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sorrento and St. Pete Beach.

Your match

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

Sorrento
Best match
49match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

St. Pete Beach
42match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

St. Pete Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
185 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SorrentoSt. Pete Beach

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

St. Pete Beach 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.

St. Pete Beach's sunshine is measured 34 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre). St. Pete Beach: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (12.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSorrentoSt. Pete Beach
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation50 m2 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)21 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSorrentoSt. Pete Beach
City population15,4078,879
People per km²1,541173
Museums within 10 km62
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Sorrento or St. Pete Beach 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.