VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Barcelona 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 Barcelona for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Barcelona 75, Portland 20: Barcelona leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Portland 68: Barcelona leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Portland 38: Barcelona leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Portland 52: Barcelona leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Portland 84: Portland leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Portland 58: Barcelona leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Portland 55: Barcelona leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Portland 62: Barcelona leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Portland 52: Barcelona leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Portland 38: Barcelona leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Portland 55: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Portland 42: Portland leads by 4 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Portland.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaPortland
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m152 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaPortland
City population1,731,649652,503
People per km²17,0941,736
Museums within 10 km9517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona 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.