VacationSelector
The Elbphilharmonie from the water, Hamburg
HamburgThe Elbphilharmonie from the water
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Hamburg by Wolfgang Weiser, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Hamburg or Portofino?

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 Hamburg for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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. Hamburg 28, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Hamburg 55, Portofino 36: Hamburg leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Hamburg 62, Portofino 22: Hamburg leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Hamburg 76, Portofino 14: Hamburg leads by 62 points.
Nature & outdoors. Hamburg 52, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Hamburg 70, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Hamburg 74, Portofino 33: Hamburg leads by 41 points.
Getting around. Hamburg 80, Portofino 50: Hamburg leads by 30 points.
Shopping & style. Hamburg 65, Portofino 29: Hamburg leads by 36 points.
Affordability. Hamburg 38, Portofino 9: Hamburg leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Hamburg 80, Portofino 7: Hamburg leads by 73 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Hamburg 44, Portofino 42: Hamburg leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Hamburg and Portofino.

Your match

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

Hamburg
Best match
60match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Hamburg in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
HamburgPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Hamburg: 1991-2020 normals, Hamburg Airport (9.3 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureHamburgPortofino
Official languageGermanItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation6 m20 m
Main airportHamburg Helmut Schmidt Airport (HAM)9 km from centre120 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureHamburgPortofino
City population1,869,473355
People per km²2,476142
Museums within 10 km7714
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Hamburg or Portofino 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. 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.