VacationSelector
The Parthenon on the Acropolis, Athens
AthensThe Parthenon on the Acropolis
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Athens by Ranjeet Kumar Singh, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Athens or Portland?

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 Athens for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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. Athens 70, Portland 20: Athens leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Athens 78, Portland 68: Athens leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Athens 88, Portland 38: Athens leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Athens 80, Portland 52: Athens leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Athens 64, Portland 84: Portland leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Athens 85, Portland 58: Athens leads by 27 points.
Good for families. Athens 58, Portland 55: Athens leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Athens 66, Portland 62: Athens leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Athens 55, Portland 52: Athens leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Athens 56, Portland 38: Athens leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Athens 64, Portland 55: Athens leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Athens and Portland are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Athens and Portland.

Your match

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

Athens
Best match
67match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Athens in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
7 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AthensPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Athens: 1991-2020 normals, Athens / Athenai / Pláka (2.2 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAthensPortland
Official languageGreek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation74 m152 m
Main airportAthens Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (ATH)20 km from centre173 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year15 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAthensPortland
City population643,452652,503
People per km²16,4991,736
Museums within 10 km8817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Athens or Portland 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.