Lisbon or Malaga?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Lisbon if the days are meant to be spent on foot: many times more notable places, museums and restaurants sit within walking distance of the centre, and there is more within day-trip reach.
Choose Malaga if swimming decides it: the sea starts at the centre rather than 2km out, and it stays at 21°C or more for three months of the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Malaga leads by 9 points.9
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 66 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 24 | 21 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Lisbon leads by 11 points.11
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 69 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,496 | 1,002 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 34 |
Museums & heritage. Lisbon leads by 17 points.17
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 53 |
| Museums within 10 km | 124 | 40 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 54 | 35 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 88 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
Nightlife. Lisbon leads by 11 points.11
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 54 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,225 | 715 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 956 | 486 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 68 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 65 | 45 |
Nature & day trips. Lisbon leads by 13 points.13
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 43 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 54 | 63 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 85 hectares |
Good for families. Lisbon leads by 16 points.16
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 82 | 33 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 85 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Lisbon leads by 29 points.29
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 37 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 169 | 33 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lisbon leads by 3 points.3
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 71 |
| Price level global | 55.9 | 60.8 |
| Daily budget | €109 | €122 |
Year-round weather. Malaga leads by 4 points.4
| Lisbon | Malaga | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 82 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14.9 °C to 28.4 °C | 17.2 °C to 31.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 121 mm | 0 mm to 88 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 5 |
Where they differ
Lisbon holds many times more notable places within walking distance of the centre, about three times as many museums, and 3 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Malaga's 1. Restaurants, drinking places and tourist attractions near the centre are roughly twice as numerous, and there is 1 theme park within reach where Malaga has none.
Malaga puts the sea at its centre, where Lisbon's is 2km out, and has three months with water at 21°C or more, which Lisbon never reaches. It also runs warmer across the year, with daytime highs of 17-32°C.
Where they are alike
Value is where the two sit closest. The estimated daily budget is €109 for Portugal and €122 for Spain, national price levels for restaurants and hotels rather than measurements of either city.
Weather and swimming are close behind. Both are coastal, both are warmest in the same month and coolest in the same month, both have winter sea temperatures down to 15°C, and each has more than twenty beaches within reach of its centre.
Which traveller are you?
Someone who wants museums, notable places and dinner choices within walking distance should take Lisbon: roughly three times as many museums, about twice as many restaurants, and far more to see on foot from the centre.
A beach-first traveller should take Malaga. The sea begins at the centre, reaches 23°C at its warmest and holds 21°C or more for three months, which Lisbon does not manage at any point.
Families lean to Lisbon: about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, similar park space, 1 theme park within reach where Malaga has none, and more protected land around the city, 11% against 7%.
What the numbers don't tell you
The daily budgets, €109 for Portugal and €122 for Spain, are national price levels for restaurants and hotels, not measurements of either city. A capital and a heavily visited coastal city can each sit further from their own country's average than these two figures sit from each other, so the gap tells you nothing about which trip will cost more.
Lisbon has more beaches nearby than Malaga, but a beach count is not a swimming season: its sea never reaches 21°C, while Malaga's does for three months. Malaga's warmth cuts the other way, peaking at 32°C, with its most comfortable stretch in spring rather than midsummer.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Malaga: 1991-2020 normals, Malaga / Aeropuerto (8.2 km from centre).
Lisbon is at its best from June to September, when highs sit at 26-28°C, rainfall falls to 3-36mm and the sea reaches its warmest, 19°C, at the end of that run. That is the only stretch when swimming there is comfortable.
Malaga is the better pick either side of that. Spring runs 22-29°C from April to June on 4-41mm of rain, and its winter months are drier, 62-88mm against Lisbon's 102-121mm, so an off-season visit is more likely to stay dry.
Getting there
| Flying from | Lisbon | Malaga |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 30 m €112-185 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 40 m €67-129 AGP · 9 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 25 m €118-145 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 25 m €92 AGP · 9 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m €64-74 LIS · 7 km | 1 h 10 m no fares AGP · 9 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 50 m €74-97 LIS · 7 km | 1 h 35 m €73-109 AGP · 9 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 50 m €167-189 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 55 m €146-177 AGP · 9 km |
| BrusselsBRU, CRL | 2 h 40 m €129-223 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 45 m €110-142 1 stop AGP · 9 km |
| DublinDUB | 2 h 35 m €126-176 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 2 h 50 m €122-139 1 stop AGP · 9 km |
| MilanMXP, BGY, LIN | 2 h 35 m €124-144 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 25 m €61-88 AGP · 9 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 0 m €621-718 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 7 h 35 m no fares AGP · 9 km |
| MarrakechRAK | 1 h 35 m €95-118 LIS · 7 km | 1 h 25 m €58-149 AGP · 9 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Lisbon | Malaga |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Portuguese | Spanish |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | CF230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 100 m | 18 m |
| Main airport | Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre153 non-stop destinations | Málaga-Costa del Sol Airport (AGP)9 km from centre165 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Lisbon | Malaga |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 545,796 | 599,063 |
| People per km² | 5,453 | 1,517 |
| Museums within 10 km | 78 | 32 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 106 | 65 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or Malaga somewhere new.