VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Cork 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 Cork for

Cork does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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. Cork 25, Lisbon 50: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 38 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Lisbon 55: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Lisbon 36: Lisbon leads by 14 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Cork
45match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cork in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
86 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CorkLisbon

Where the figures come from

Cork's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cork: 1991-2020 normals, Cork Airport (5.6 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkLisbon
Official languageEnglish, IrishPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation0 m100 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkLisbon
City population222,333545,796
People per km²5,9615,453
Museums within 10 km580
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cork 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). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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.