VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro or Galway?

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 Faro for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • families

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

Choose Galway for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Galway’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. Faro 74, Galway 28: Faro leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Galway 45: Faro leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Galway 33: Faro leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Galway 50: Galway leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Galway 78: Galway leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Galway 56: Faro leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Galway 42: Faro leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Galway 58: Faro leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Galway 38: Galway leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Galway 28: Faro leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Galway 57: Galway leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Galway 28: Faro leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Galway.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Galway
45match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Faro in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
21 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
FaroGalway

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroGalway
Official languagePortugueseEnglish, Irish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m25 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroGalway
City population64,56083,456
People per km²3191,563
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro or Galway 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.