VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lima or Paphos?

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 Lima for

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Paphos for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Paphos’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. Lima 42, Paphos 76: Paphos leads by 34 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Paphos 45: Lima leads by 43 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Paphos 62: Lima leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Paphos 38: Lima leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Paphos 70: Paphos leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Paphos 64: Paphos leads by 30 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Paphos 68: Paphos leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Paphos 40: Paphos leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Lima 52, Paphos 25: Lima leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Lima 70, Paphos 52: Lima leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Paphos 22: Lima leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Paphos 42: Paphos leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Paphos.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Lima
51match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
LimaPaphos

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaPaphos
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, QuechuaTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencySol (PEN)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911112
Elevation154 m72 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaPaphos
City population9,943,80035,961
People per km²3,7211,987
Museums within 10 km474
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima or Paphos 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). 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. 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. 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.