VacationSelector
A jetty on the lagoon, Faro
FaroA jetty on the lagoon
The cathedral above the old town, Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de CompostelaThe cathedral above the old town

Photos: Faro by Efrem Efre, Pexels License; Santiago de Compostela by Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga), CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Faro or Santiago de Compostela?

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
  • families

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

Choose Santiago de Compostela for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Santiago de Compostela’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, Santiago de Compostela 32: Faro leads by 42 points.
Food & drink. Faro 48, Santiago de Compostela 68: Santiago de Compostela leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Faro 35, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Faro 32, Santiago de Compostela 45: Santiago de Compostela leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Faro and Santiago de Compostela are level on 62.
Day trips. Faro 64, Santiago de Compostela 72: Santiago de Compostela leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Faro 60, Santiago de Compostela 42: Faro leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Faro 60, Santiago de Compostela 70: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Faro and Santiago de Compostela are level on 35.
Affordability. Faro 60, Santiago de Compostela 64: Santiago de Compostela leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Faro 30, Santiago de Compostela 40: Santiago de Compostela leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Faro 33, Santiago de Compostela 42: Santiago de Compostela leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Faro and Santiago de Compostela.

Your match

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

Faro
49match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Santiago de Compostela
Best match
54match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink 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

Santiago de Compostela in July

25 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
FaroSantiago de Compostela

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Faro: 1991-2020 normals, Faro / Aeroporto (2.8 km from centre). Santiago de Compostela: 1991-2020 normals, Santiago / Labacolla (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFaroSantiago de Compostela
Official languagePortugueseSpanish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m260 m
Main airportFaro - Gago Coutinho International Airport (FAO)3 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsSantiago-Rosalía de Castro Airport (SCQ)10 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFaroSantiago de Compostela
City population64,560100,965
People per km²319459
Museums within 10 km26
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
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 Santiago de Compostela 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.