VacationSelector
The Hôtel du Palais, Biarritz
BiarritzThe Hôtel du Palais
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Biarritz by Lilipiapia, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Biarritz 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 Biarritz for

  • live music and the arts
  • families
  • food and drink

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

Choose Portofino for

  • 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. Biarritz 68, Portofino 60: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Biarritz 62, Portofino 36: Biarritz leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Biarritz 33, Portofino 22: Biarritz leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Biarritz 36, Portofino 14: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Biarritz 74, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Biarritz 80, Portofino 76: Biarritz leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Biarritz 62, Portofino 33: Biarritz leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Biarritz 58, Portofino 50: Biarritz leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Biarritz 42, Portofino 29: Biarritz leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Biarritz 30, Portofino 9: Biarritz leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Biarritz 38, Portofino 7: Biarritz leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Biarritz 64, Portofino 42: Biarritz leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Biarritz
Best match
54match

Wins on live music and the arts and families with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

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.

Biarritz in July

24 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
97 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
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°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BiarritzPortofino

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. Biarritz: 1999-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Biarritz (2.5 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBiarritzPortofino
Official languageFrenchItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m20 m
Main airportBiarritz Pays Basque airport (BIQ)3 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBiarritzPortofino
City population26,206355
People per km²2,240142
Museums within 10 km814
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Biarritz 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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.