VacationSelector
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Sorrento or Valletta?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Valletta for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Sorrento 60, Valletta 55: Sorrento leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Sorrento 32, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Sorrento 28, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sorrento 80, Valletta 56: Sorrento leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Sorrento 95, Valletta 76: Sorrento leads by 19 points.
Good for families. Sorrento 42, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Sorrento 58, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Sorrento and Valletta are level on 38.
Affordability. Sorrento 32, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sorrento 20, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 24 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sorrento 48, Valletta 32: Sorrento leads by 16 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Sorrento
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Valletta
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts 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

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SorrentoValletta

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.

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). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSorrentoValletta
Official languageItalianEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation50 m56 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSorrentoValletta
City population15,4075,197
People per km²1,5416,496
Museums within 10 km616
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km53
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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