VacationSelector
Bougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral, Limassol
LimassolBougainvillea and the dome of Agia Napa Cathedral
The Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière, Lyon
LyonThe Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

Photos: Limassol by Julian Lupyan, CC0; Lyon by Dennis G. Jarvis, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Limassol or Lyon?

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 Limassol for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

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

Choose Lyon for

  • culture and sights
  • getting around
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Lyon’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. Limassol 77, Lyon 12: Limassol leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Limassol 58, Lyon 84: Lyon leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Limassol 38, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 39 points.
Nightlife. Limassol 50, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Limassol 65, Lyon 64: Limassol leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Limassol 76, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 1 points.
Good for families. Limassol 63, Lyon 62: Limassol leads by 1 points.
Getting around. Limassol 38, Lyon 77: Lyon leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. Limassol 42, Lyon 58: Lyon leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Limassol 44, Lyon 42: Limassol leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Limassol 32, Lyon 68: Lyon leads by 36 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Limassol 42, Lyon 40: Limassol leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Limassol
52match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Lyon
Best match
60match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

Limassol in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
13 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Lyon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
66 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LimassolLyon

Where the figures come from

Limassol 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.

Limassol's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Limassol: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Akrotiri (11.6 km from centre). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimassolLyon
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation10 m160 m
Main airportLarnaca International Airport (LCA)58 km from centre112 non-stop destinationsLyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre141 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimassolLyon
City population107,970519,127
People per km²2,40510,838
Museums within 10 km243
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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). 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. 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.