VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Faro or Paphos?

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
  • shopping
  • prices

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

Choose Paphos for

  • culture and sights
  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Paphos 45: Faro leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Paphos 62: Paphos leads by 27 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Paphos 38: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro 62, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Faro and Paphos are level on 64.
Good for families. Faro 60, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Paphos 40: Faro leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Faro 35, Paphos 25: Faro leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Faro 60, Paphos 52: Faro leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Paphos 22: Faro leads by 8 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Faro
49match

Wins on getting around and shopping with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
FaroPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroPaphos
Official languagePortugueseTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m72 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroPaphos
City population64,56035,961
People per km²3191,987
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months6 months

Where else could you go?

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