VacationSelector
Lion's Head above Clifton Beach, Cape Town
Cape TownLion's Head above Clifton Beach
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Cape Town by Stephan Louis, Pexels License; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Cape Town 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 Cape Town for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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. Cape Town 58, Lisbon 50: Cape Town leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Cape Town 72, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Cape Town 60, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Cape Town 60, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cape Town 98, Lisbon 75: Cape Town leads by 23 points.
Day trips. Cape Town 68, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cape Town 58, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Cape Town 35, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Cape Town 50, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Cape Town 72, Lisbon 55: Cape Town leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cape Town 52, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cape Town 45, Lisbon 36: Cape Town leads by 9 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cape Town and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Cape Town
61match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Cape Town in July

18 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
89 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
15 °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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Cape TownLisbon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cape Town: 1991-2020 normals, Cape Town Airport (17.5 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCape TownLisbon
Official languageEnglish, Zulu, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Venda, Northern Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Sesotho, Southern Ndebele, South African Sign LanguagePortuguese
CurrencyRand (ZAR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCMN230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation5 m100 m
Main airportCape Town International Airport (CPT)18 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCape TownLisbon
City population3,776,313545,796
People per km²1,5385,453
Museums within 10 km2280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km33
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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