VacationSelector
Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
GalwayGalway Cathedral from the River Corrib
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street

Photos: Galway by Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License.

Galway 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 Galway for

  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Lisbon for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

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. Galway 28, Lisbon 50: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Galway 45, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Galway 33, Lisbon 78: Lisbon leads by 45 points.
Nightlife. Galway 50, Lisbon 75: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Galway 78, Lisbon 75: Galway leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Galway 56, Lisbon 82: Lisbon leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Galway 42, Lisbon 62: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Galway 58, Lisbon 66: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Galway 38, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Galway 28, Lisbon 55: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Live music & performing arts. Galway 57, Lisbon 60: Lisbon leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Galway 28, Lisbon 36: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Galway and Lisbon.

Your match

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

Galway
45match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Lisbon
Best match
65match

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.

Galway in July

20 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 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

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
GalwayLisbon

Where the figures come from

Galway's temperatures are measured 64 km from the centre, at Shannon Airport.

Galway 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. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGalwayLisbon
Official languageEnglish, IrishPortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation25 m100 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayLisbon
City population83,456545,796
People per km²1,5635,453
Museums within 10 km480
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km03
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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