VacationSelector
The Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Cusco
CuscoThe Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Cusco by Pedro Szekely, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Cusco 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 Cusco for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • families
  • wellness

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. Cusco 3, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Cusco 56, Portofino 36: Cusco leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Cusco 81, Portofino 22: Cusco leads by 59 points.
Nightlife. Cusco 42, Portofino 14: Cusco leads by 28 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cusco 86, Portofino 77: Cusco leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Cusco 78, Portofino 76: Cusco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Cusco 10, Portofino 33: Portofino leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Cusco 48, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Cusco 52, Portofino 29: Cusco leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Cusco 73, Portofino 9: Cusco leads by 64 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cusco 30, Portofino 7: Cusco leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cusco 33, Portofino 42: Portofino leads by 9 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cusco and Portofino.

Your match

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

Cusco
Best match
49match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches 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.

Cusco in July

20 °Cdaytime high
1 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 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
CuscoPortofino

Where the figures come from

Cusco's station stands 151 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

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. Cusco: 1991-2020 normals, Cuzco (3.7 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCuscoPortofino
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaItalian
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation3,399 m20 m
Main airportAlejandro Velasco Astete International Airport (CUZ)5 km from centre6 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureCuscoPortofino
City population428,450355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km1114
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cusco 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.