VacationSelector
The Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort, Galle
GalleThe Dutch Reformed Church in Galle Fort
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Galle by Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Galle or Lisbon?

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 Galle for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • prices

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Lisbon’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. Galle 80, Lisbon 50: Galle leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Galle 50, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Galle 55, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Galle 18, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galle 66, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Galle 50, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Galle 42, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Galle 35, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 31 points.
Shopping & style. Galle 33, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Galle 72, Lisbon 55: Galle leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galle 10, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galle 70, Lisbon 36: Galle leads by 34 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galle and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Galle
48match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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.

Galle in July

28 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
116 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
28 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
GalleLisbon

Where the figures come from

Galle has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galle: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalleLisbon
Official languageTamil, SinhalaPortuguese
CurrencySri Lanka Rupee (LKR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsGM230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:30UTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 119, ambulance 110, fire 110112
Elevation0 m100 m
Main airportBandaranaike International Colombo Airport (CMB)133 km from centre56 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalleLisbon
City population93,118545,796
People per km²-5,453
Museums within 10 km280
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Galle or Lisbon somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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). 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.