VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
White sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico, Gulf Shores
Gulf ShoresWhite sand and the turquoise Gulf of Mexico

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Gulf Shores by ourgulfshoresvacation.com, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Faro or Gulf Shores?

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

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Gulf Shores for

  • families
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Gulf Shores’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, Gulf Shores 84: Gulf Shores leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Gulf Shores 38: Faro leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Gulf Shores 12: Faro leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Faro and Gulf Shores are level on 32.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Gulf Shores 52: Faro leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Gulf Shores 52: Faro leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Gulf Shores 75: Gulf Shores leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Gulf Shores 15: Faro leads by 45 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Gulf Shores 22: Faro leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Gulf Shores 42: Faro leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Gulf Shores 27: Faro leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores.

Your match

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

Faro
Best match
49match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Gulf Shores
40match

Wins on families and beaches 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

Gulf Shores in July

32 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
165 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FaroGulf Shores

Where the figures come from

Gulf Shores 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). Gulf Shores: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Gulf Shores / Bay Village Mobile Home Park (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroGulf Shores
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation10 m2 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsPensacola International Airport (PNS)54 km from centre27 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroGulf Shores
City population64,56015,014
People per km²319207
Museums within 10 km21
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Faro or Gulf Shores 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.