VacationSelector
The Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires
Buenos AiresThe Teatro Colón
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Buenos Aires by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Buenos Aires or Lisbon?

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 Buenos Aires for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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. Buenos Aires 7, Lisbon 50: Lisbon leads by 43 points.
Food & drink. Buenos Aires and Lisbon are level on 75.
Culture & sights. Buenos Aires 71, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Buenos Aires 95, Lisbon 75: Buenos Aires leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Buenos Aires 38, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Buenos Aires 60, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Buenos Aires 52, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Buenos Aires 62, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Buenos Aires and Lisbon are level on 60.
Affordability. Buenos Aires and Lisbon are level on 55.
Live music & performing arts. Buenos Aires 75, Lisbon 60: Buenos Aires leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Buenos Aires 28, Lisbon 36: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Buenos Aires and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Buenos Aires
57match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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.

Buenos Aires in July

15 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
13 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Buenos AiresLisbon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Buenos Aires: 1991-2020 normals, Aeroparque Bs. As. Aerodrome (4.9 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBuenos AiresLisbon
Official languageSpanishPortuguese
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911112
Elevation25 m100 m
Main airportEzeiza International Airport - Ministro Pistarini (EZE)28 km from centre48 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureBuenos AiresLisbon
City population3,121,707545,796
People per km²15,3555,453
Museums within 10 km7680
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Buenos Aires or Lisbon 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). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.