VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Portland?

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

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • day trips

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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, Portland 20: Lisbon leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Portland 68: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Portland 38: Lisbon leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Portland 52: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Portland 84: Portland leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Portland 58: Lisbon leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Portland 55: Lisbon leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Portland 62: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Portland 52: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Portland 38: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Portland 55: Lisbon leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Portland 42: Portland leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Portland.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

Portland
52match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonPortland
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m152 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonPortland
City population545,796652,503
People per km²5,4531,736
Museums within 10 km8017
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 Portland 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.