Cadiz or Lisbon?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on places to eat and nightlife 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 holiday is built around water: the sea begins at the centre, the choice of beaches is wider and the summer water is genuinely warm, with drier autumns than Lisbon.
Choose Lisbon if you want a city to walk: far more restaurants, museums and bars, more notable places within walking distance, and protected countryside and a theme park within day-trip reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Cadiz leads by 13 points.13
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 57 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 29 | 24 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 2 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 2 km |
Places to eat. Lisbon leads by 36 points.36
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 80 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 338 | 2,496 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Lisbon leads by 34 points.34
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 36 | 70 |
| Museums within 10 km | 23 | 124 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 54 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 70 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 3 |
Nightlife. Lisbon leads by 35 points.35
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 65 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 241 | 1,225 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 175 | 956 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 73 | 78 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 6 | 65 |
Nature & day trips. Lisbon leads by 30 points.30
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 26 | 56 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 11 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 45 | 54 |
| Park area within 2 km | 24 hectares | 77 hectares |
Good for families. Lisbon leads by 15 points.15
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 69 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 80 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 24 hectares | 77 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Lisbon leads by 35 points.35
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 66 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 23 | 169 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lisbon leads by 3 points.3
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 71 | 74 |
| Price level global | 60.8 | 55.9 |
| Daily budget | €122 | €109 |
Year-round weather. Cadiz leads by 5 points.5
| Cadiz | Lisbon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 83 | 78 |
| Monthly daytime high | 16.2 °C to 28 °C | 14.9 °C to 28.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 0 mm to 89 mm | 3 mm to 121 mm |
| Dry months | 5 | 4 |
Where they differ
The sea begins at Cadiz's centre, 0km away against 2km in Lisbon, with 29 beaches nearby against 24 and three summer months of water at 21°C or more, which Lisbon's coast never manages.
Lisbon has many times as many restaurants near the centre and a wider range of kitchens, many times as many bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance. Protected land runs to 11% around it against 4% around Cadiz, with about three times the park space.
Where they are alike
Value for money is where they sit closest. The national daily estimate is €122 in Spain and €109 in Portugal, a gap small enough that country-level prices will not decide this trip either way.
The weather has nearly the same shape: both peak at 28°C in August and both cool to 15-16°C at midwinter, with dry summers and wet late autumns. Families find similar ground too, with about as many attractions near each centre.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller whose week is built around swimming should take Cadiz: the sea starts at the centre, 29 beaches sit within reach, and the water holds 21°C or more for three summer months, which Lisbon's coast does not.
Anyone here for food, museums and late evenings should take Lisbon, which has many times as many restaurants, museums and bars near the centre, plus 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach where Cadiz has none.
Families with children who tire of sand will find more to do in Lisbon: similar numbers of attractions near the centre, but roughly three times the park space and 1 theme park within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budget figures, €122 for Spain and €109 for Portugal, are national estimates of restaurant and hotel price levels, not measurements of Cadiz or Lisbon. A capital and a small coastal city can each sit far from their own national average, by more than the gap between these two, so neither figure tells you which trip will cost more.
Cadiz's warmest sea and driest weather land in the same high-summer weeks when everyone else arrives, and the calmer months either side bring the water back below swimming warmth and, by November, the year's heaviest rain at 89mm.
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). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).
Cadiz is the better pick from June to September: highs of 26-28°C, sea warming to 23°C and summer rain close to nothing. Its autumn holds up better as well, 76mm in October against Lisbon's 108mm.
Lisbon is the better call in May and September, when 23-26°C highs suit long days on foot and the rain has eased. Winter is where they separate: January brings 104mm in Lisbon, well above Cadiz, so the wet season bites harder there.
Getting there
| Flying from | Cadiz | Lisbon |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 35 m €83-157 TNG · 95 km | 2 h 25 m €118-145 LIS · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m no fares XRY · 31 km | 1 h 15 m €64-74 LIS · 7 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 40 m no fares XRY · 31 km | 1 h 50 m €74-97 LIS · 7 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 40 m no fares XRY · 31 km | 2 h 30 m €112-185 LIS · 7 km |
| BilbaoBIO | 1 h 30 m €112-119 SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 30 m no fares LIS · 7 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 25 m €89-105 SVQ · 105 km | 2 h 35 m €124-144 LIS · 7 km |
| ValenciaVLC | 1 h 15 m €50-96 SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 35 m no fares LIS · 7 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 3 h 5 m no fares TNG · 95 km | 2 h 50 m €167-189 LIS · 7 km |
| PortoOPO | 1 h 15 m €91-110 SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 0 m €93-107 LIS · 7 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 1 h 30 m no fares SVQ · 105 km | 1 h 35 m €95-118 LIS · 7 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 | Lisbon |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 100 m |
| Main airport | Jerez Airport (XRY)31 km from centre23 non-stop destinations | Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre153 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Cadiz | Lisbon |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 109,950 | 545,796 |
| People per km² | 9,087 | 5,453 |
| Museums within 10 km | 11 | 78 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 28 | 106 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cadiz or Lisbon somewhere new.