VacationSelector
The Forbidden City, Beijing
BeijingThe Forbidden City
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Beijing by BI ravencrow, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Beijing or Portofino?

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 Beijing for

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

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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. Beijing 6, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 54 points.
Food & drink. Beijing 81, Portofino 36: Beijing leads by 45 points.
Culture & sights. Beijing 93, Portofino 22: Beijing leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Beijing 58, Portofino 14: Beijing leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Beijing 60, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Beijing 85, Portofino 76: Beijing leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Beijing 64, Portofino 33: Beijing leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Beijing 69, Portofino 50: Beijing leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Beijing 72, Portofino 29: Beijing leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Beijing 68, Portofino 9: Beijing leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Beijing 68, Portofino 7: Beijing leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Beijing 55, Portofino 42: Beijing leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Beijing and Portofino.

Your match

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

Beijing
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and 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.

Beijing in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
163 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BeijingPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Beijing: 1991-2020 normals, Beijing (11.1 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBeijingPortofino
Official languagePutonghuaItalian
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Euro (EUR)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119112
Elevation43 m20 m
Main airportBeijing Capital International Airport (PEK)25 km from centre104 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBeijingPortofino
City population21,893,095355
People per km²1,334142
Museums within 10 km8314
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km62
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Beijing or Portofino 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.