VacationSelector
The City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia
ValenciaThe City of Arts and Sciences
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Valencia by Francesco Ungaro, Pexels License; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Valencia 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 Valencia for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Wilmington for

Wilmington does not lead in any category we score.

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. Valencia 78, Wilmington 73: Valencia leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Valencia 74, Wilmington 48: Valencia leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Valencia 68, Wilmington 40: Valencia leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Valencia 66, Wilmington 40: Valencia leads by 26 points.
Nature & outdoors. Valencia 60, Wilmington 58: Valencia leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Valencia 70, Wilmington 45: Valencia leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Valencia 75, Wilmington 62: Valencia leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Valencia 76, Wilmington 28: Valencia leads by 48 points.
Shopping & style. Valencia 57, Wilmington 33: Valencia leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Valencia 57, Wilmington 42: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Valencia 55, Wilmington 40: Valencia leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Valencia 42, Wilmington 33: Valencia leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Valencia and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Valencia
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

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
ValenciaWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Valencia: 1991-2020 normals, Valencia (1.6 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureValenciaWilmington
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation15 m9 m
Main airportValencia Airport (VLC)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureValenciaWilmington
City population840,792115,451
People per km²6,242839
Museums within 10 km452
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Valencia 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.