VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chicago 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 Chicago for

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

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

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. Chicago 50, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Portofino 36: Chicago leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Portofino 22: Chicago leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Portofino 14: Chicago leads by 63 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Portofino 33: Chicago leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Portofino 50: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Portofino 29: Chicago leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Portofino 9: Chicago leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Portofino 7: Chicago leads by 75 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Portofino.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

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

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips 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.

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoPortofino

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoPortofino
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m20 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoPortofino
City population2,746,388355
People per km²4,529142
Museums within 10 km4414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

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