VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • shopping

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • getting around
  • 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. Kathmandu 4, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Portofino 36: Kathmandu leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Portofino 22: Kathmandu leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu 36, Portofino 14: Kathmandu leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Portofino 33: Portofino leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Portofino 29: Kathmandu leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Portofino 9: Kathmandu leads by 88 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Portofino 7: Kathmandu leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Portofino 42: Kathmandu leads by 3 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Portofino.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 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

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPortofino

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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPortofino
Official languageNepaliItalian
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101112
Elevation1,300 m20 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPortofino
City population845,767355
People per km²17,121142
Museums within 10 km914
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 Kathmandu 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). 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.