VacationSelector

Galway or Macau?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Galway Cathedral from the River Corrib, Galway
Galway

Photo: Dieglop, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

Your match

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Galway
45
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Macau
46
match

Wins on food and drink and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

GalwayMacau
Beaches & swimming. Galway leads by 4 points.4
Food & drink. Macau leads by 32 points.32
Culture & sights. Macau leads by 29 points.29
Nightlife. Galway leads by 10 points.10
Nature & outdoors. Galway leads by 73 points.73
Day trips. Galway leads by 4 points.4
Good for families. Macau leads by 6 points.6
Getting around. Macau leads by 2 points.2
Shopping & style. Macau leads by 20 points.20
Affordability. Macau leads by 16 points.16
Live music & performing arts. Galway leads by 21 points.21
Wellness & relaxation. Macau leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyGalwayMacau
Daytime high20 °C32 °C
Night-time low13 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month76 mm281 mm
Sunshine4 hours a day7 hours a day
Sea temperature16 °C29 °C
Daylight16 hours a day13 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Galway
9
10
11
14
16
19
20
19
18
14
11
9
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
Sea temperature, °C
Galway
9
9
9
10
12
14
16
16
15
14
12
10
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Rainfall, mm
Galway
100
87
76
63
63
72
76
89
77
101
104
113
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Daylight, hours per day
Galway
8
10
12
14
16
17
16
15
13
11
9
8
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Sunshine, hours per day
Galway
2
2
4
5
6
5
4
5
4
3
2
2
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5

Where the figures come from

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

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Galway: 1991-2020 normals, Shannon Airport (64.2 km from centre). Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromGalwayMacau
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
1 h 20 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
12 h 0 m
€570-666
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
6 h 30 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
15 h 55 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
BostonBOS, PSM
6 h 10 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
15 h 45 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
ManchesterMAN
1 h 10 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
12 h 0 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
BudapestBUD
3 h 5 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
10 h 40 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1
7 h 25 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
15 h 25 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
FrankfurtFRA, HHN
2 h 10 m
no fares
KIR · 125 km
11 h 25 m
€630-670
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
1 h 45 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
11 h 55 m
€586-713
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
MilanMXP, BGY, LIN
2 h 30 m
no fares
NOC · 73 km
11 h 40 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
MadridMAD
2 h 20 m
no fares
SNN · 64 km
13 h 0 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureGalwayMacau
Official languageEnglish, IrishPortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pataca (MOP)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzFGM220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number112999
Elevation25 m22 m
Main airportShannon Airport (SNN)64 km from centre39 non-stop destinationsMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days-

By the numbers

MeasureGalwayMacau
City population83,456682,100
People per km²1,5635,916
Museums within 10 km428
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.