VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

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

Faro or Melbourne?

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

  • prices
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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, Melbourne 50: Faro leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Melbourne 57: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 43 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Faro 64, Melbourne 62: Faro leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Melbourne 73: Melbourne leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Melbourne 31: Faro leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Melbourne 72: Melbourne leads by 42 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Faro
49match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts 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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FaroMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroMelbourne
Official languagePortugueseEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation10 m31 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroMelbourne
City population64,5605,350,705
People per km²319535
Museums within 10 km243
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
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 Melbourne 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.