VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

Lisbon or London?

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 Lisbon for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose London for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on London’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. Lisbon 50, London 25: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, London 84: London leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, London 94: London leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, London 88: London leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, London 57: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, London 90: London leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, London 82: London leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, London 85: London leads by 19 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, London 95: London leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, London 15: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, London 98: London leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, London 40: London leads by 4 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
65match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

London
Best match
71match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lisbon in July

28 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
3 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonLondon

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonLondon
Official languagePortugueseEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number112112 or 999
Elevation100 m4 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonLondon
City population545,7968,799,728
People per km²5,4535,598
Museums within 10 km80216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km34
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or London 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). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.