VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Casino de Monte-Carlo, Monaco
MonacoThe Casino de Monte-Carlo

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Monaco by otterboris, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Monaco?

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
  • nightlife
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Monaco for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Monaco’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, Monaco 68: Monaco leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Monaco 57: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Monaco 55: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Monaco 48: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Monaco 70: Lisbon leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Monaco 84: Monaco leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Monaco 60: Lisbon leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Monaco 78: Monaco leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Monaco 52: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Monaco 3: Lisbon leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Monaco 63: Monaco leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Monaco 55: Monaco leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Monaco.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on prices and nightlife with your weighting.

Monaco
58match

Wins on wellness and beaches 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

Monaco in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonMonaco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Monaco: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (19.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonMonaco
Official languagePortugueseFrench
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCEF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m68 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)18 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonMonaco
City population545,79638,857
People per km²5,45318,503
Museums within 10 km8014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km32
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 Lisbon or Monaco 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.