VacationSelector
Beira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower, Colombo
ColomboBeira Lake with Seema Malaka and the Lotus Tower
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral

Photos: Colombo by Mohamed Ansaf, Pexels License; Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0.

Colombo or Limassol?

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 Colombo for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Limassol for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Limassol’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. Colombo 55, Limassol 77: Limassol leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Colombo 66, Limassol 58: Colombo leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Colombo 45, Limassol 38: Colombo leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Colombo 35, Limassol 50: Limassol leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Colombo 32, Limassol 65: Limassol leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Colombo 50, Limassol 76: Limassol leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Colombo 35, Limassol 63: Limassol leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Colombo 35, Limassol 38: Limassol leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Colombo 45, Limassol 42: Colombo leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Colombo 78, Limassol 44: Colombo leads by 34 points.
Live music & performing arts. Colombo 30, Limassol 32: Limassol leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Colombo 48, Limassol 42: Colombo leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Colombo and Limassol.

Your match

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

Colombo
46match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Limassol
Best match
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Colombo in July

30 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
128 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
28 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ColomboLimassol

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Colombo: 1991-2020 normals, Colombo (3 km from centre). Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureColomboLimassol
Official languageTamil, SinhalaTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation1 m10 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)28 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureColomboLimassol
City population647,557107,970
People per km²17,3612,405
Museums within 10 km102
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Colombo or Limassol 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). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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.