VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License.

Bath or Faro?

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 Bath for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Faro for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Faro’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. Bath 10, Faro 74: Faro leads by 64 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Faro 48: Faro leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Faro 35: Bath leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Faro 32: Faro leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Faro 62: Faro leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Faro 64: Bath leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Faro 60: Faro leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Faro 60: Bath leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Faro 35: Bath leads by 19 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Faro 60: Faro leads by 33 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Faro 30: Bath leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Faro 33: Bath leads by 45 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Faro
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathFaro

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathFaro
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999112
Elevation132 m10 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathFaro
City population94,09264,560
People per km²3,245319
Museums within 10 km172
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Faro 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). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.