Cadiz or Faro?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on good for families and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Cadiz if the trip is built around the coast and a compact centre: more beaches to choose from, 29 against 13, with museums, family attractions and places to drink close together on foot.
Choose Faro if you would rather have countryside within reach, more park space near the centre, theme parks for children and a wider spread of kitchens to eat from.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cadiz leads by 9 points.9
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 61 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 29 | 13 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Cadiz and Faro are level on 44.
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 44 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 338 | 255 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 22 |
Museums & heritage. Cadiz leads by 14 points.14
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 22 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 9 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 8 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 89 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Cadiz leads by 9 points.9
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 21 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 241 | 143 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 175 | 123 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 73 | 86 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 8 |
Nature & day trips. Faro leads by 31 points.31
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 26 | 57 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 11 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 45 | 42 |
| Park area within 2 km | 24 hectares | 34 hectares |
Good for families. Cadiz leads by 18 points.18
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 36 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 80 | 10 |
| Park area within 2 km | 24 hectares | 34 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Cadiz leads by 9 points.9
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 22 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 23 | 14 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Faro leads by 3 points.3
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 74 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 55.9 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €109 |
Year-round weather. Cadiz and Faro are level on 83.
| Cadiz | Faro | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 83 |
| Monthly daytime high | 16.2 °C to 28 °C | 16.3 °C to 29 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 89 mm | 1 mm to 102 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 6 |
Where they differ
Cadiz is the stronger base for a family staying put: many times as many tourist attractions near the centre, and about three times as many museums as Faro. Its centre also packs about twice as many notable places within walking distance, and about twice as many places to drink, so evenings need no transport.
Faro leads outdoors: 11% of the land around it is protected against 4% around Cadiz, with more park space near the centre and 2 theme parks within reach. Its kitchens span a wider range.
Where they are alike
The weather is the closest match. Both run daytime highs of about 16-28°C across the year, both pass 3100 hours of sun, and both cool to the same winter daytime figures, so neither gives you a warmer trip than the other in any season.
Eating out is level too: Cadiz has somewhat more restaurants near the centre, Faro a somewhat wider range of kitchens. National price levels sit close as well, €122 in Spain against €109 in Portugal.
Which traveller are you?
A family with young children who want the beach and things to do on foot should take Cadiz, with 29 beaches nearby and many more attractions close to the centre; Faro answers with 2 theme parks within reach.
Anyone who likes walking a town is also better off in Cadiz: about twice as many notable places sit within walking distance of the centre, and the museum offering is deeper.
Travellers who want to get out of town should pick Faro: 11% of the surrounding land is protected against 4% around Cadiz, with more park space near the centre for slower days.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget is a national estimate, €122 for Spain and €109 for Portugal, not a measurement of either city. A heavily visited coastal town can sit far from its country's average, by more than the gap between these two figures, so it says nothing about which trip costs more.
Both look strong on year-round weather, but that rests on mild winters more than on swimming: each has only 3 months with the sea at 21°C or more, and autumn rain is substantial. Cadiz's larger beach count says how many beaches there are, not how crowded they are in the months that rate highest.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cadiz: 1991-2020 normals, Cadiz Bay / Puntales (5.2 km from centre). Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre).
Cadiz is at its best in July and August, 28°C by day with the sea at 23°C and rain effectively absent; September holds the heat and the sea stays swimmable. October brings heavier rain to both.
Faro is the better call in late spring, 24°C in May on just 23mm of rain, and it is drier than Cadiz through much of the winter, apart from December, at 102mm. That is its wettest month, and wetter than anything Cadiz records.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cadiz | Faro |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares XRY · 31 km | 2 h 40 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 35 m €83-157 TNG · 95 km | 2 h 30 m €126-204 1 stop FAO · 3 km |
| DublinDUB | 2 h 45 m no fares SVQ · 105 km | 2 h 50 m €75-114 FAO · 3 km |
| BilbaoBIO | 1 h 30 m €112-119 SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 40 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
| LisbonLIS | 1 h 5 m €36-67 SVQ · 105 km | 55 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m no fares XRY · 31 km | 1 h 20 m €46-52 FAO · 3 km |
| EindhovenEIN | 2 h 45 m no fares SVQ · 105 km | 2 h 55 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
| PortoOPO | 1 h 15 m €91-110 SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 15 m €37-132 FAO · 3 km |
| ManchesterMAN | 2 h 45 m no fares SVQ · 105 km | 2 h 50 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 1 h 30 m no fares SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 20 m no fares FAO · 3 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Cadiz | Faro |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Spanish | Portuguese |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer | UTC, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 10 m |
| Main airport | Jerez Airport (XRY)31 km from centre23 non-stop destinations | Faro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cadiz | Faro |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 109,950 | 64,560 |
| People per km² | 9,087 | 319 |
| Museums within 10 km | 11 | 2 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 28 | 34 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cadiz or Faro somewhere new.