VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Boston 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 Boston for

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

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Boston 35, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, Portofino 36: Boston leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, Portofino 22: Boston leads by 50 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, Portofino 14: Boston leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 17 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, Portofino 33: Boston leads by 39 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, Portofino 50: Boston leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, Portofino 29: Boston leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, Portofino 9: Boston leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, Portofino 7: Boston leads by 65 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 12 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °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
BostonPortofino

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. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonPortofino
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation43 m20 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonPortofino
City population675,647355
People per km²2,910142
Museums within 10 km5114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

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