VacationSelector
Colourful shopfronts in the city centre, Cork
CorkColourful shopfronts in the city centre
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Cork by Selim Karadayı, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Cork or Portland?

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

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Cork leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Cork 58, Portland 68: Portland leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Cork 40, Portland 38: Cork leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Cork 40, Portland 52: Portland leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cork 62, Portland 84: Portland leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Cork 68, Portland 58: Cork leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Cork 50, Portland 55: Portland leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Cork 58, Portland 62: Portland leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cork 40, Portland 52: Portland leads by 12 points.
Affordability. Cork 33, Portland 38: Portland leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cork 45, Portland 55: Portland leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cork 22, Portland 42: Portland leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cork and Portland.

Your match

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

Cork
45match

Wins on day trips and beaches with your weighting.

Portland
Best match
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CorkPortland

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). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCorkPortland
Official languageEnglish, Irish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m152 m
Main airportCork International Airport (ORK)7 km from centre47 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureCorkPortland
City population222,333652,503
People per km²5,9611,736
Museums within 10 km517
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cork or Portland 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.