VacationSelector
Main Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower, Laguna Beach
Laguna BeachMain Beach with its palms and lifeguard tower
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Laguna Beach by Mark Stebnicki, Pexels License; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Laguna Beach 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 Laguna Beach for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Portofino for

  • getting around
  • 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. Laguna Beach 72, Portofino 60: Laguna Beach leads by 12 points.
Food & drink. Laguna Beach 40, Portofino 36: Laguna Beach leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Laguna Beach 27, Portofino 22: Laguna Beach leads by 5 points.
Nightlife. Laguna Beach 18, Portofino 14: Laguna Beach leads by 4 points.
Nature & outdoors. Laguna Beach 73, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Laguna Beach 72, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Good for families. Laguna Beach 68, Portofino 33: Laguna Beach leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Laguna Beach 33, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Laguna Beach 46, Portofino 29: Laguna Beach leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Laguna Beach 12, Portofino 9: Laguna Beach leads by 3 points.
Live music & performing arts. Laguna Beach 40, Portofino 7: Laguna Beach leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Laguna Beach 47, Portofino 42: Laguna Beach leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Laguna Beach and Portofino.

Your match

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

Laguna Beach
Best match
46match

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

Portofino
38match

Wins on getting around 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.

Laguna Beach in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Laguna BeachPortofino

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. Laguna Beach: 1981-2010 normals, Irvine (15.5 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLaguna BeachPortofino
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation6 m20 m
Main airportJohn Wayne Orange County International Airport (SNA)18 km from centre53 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLaguna BeachPortofino
City population23,032355
People per km²907142
Museums within 10 km214
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Laguna Beach 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

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.