Lisbon or Porto?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and museums & heritage 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 you want a city you can cover on foot, with the wider choice of restaurants and nightclubs, and more green space and protected country within reach for days out.
Choose Porto if the coast matters most, with 52 beaches nearby against Lisbon's 24, in a smaller city with a comparable museum and heritage offering and somewhat more attractions near the centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Porto leads by 3 points.3
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 60 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 24 | 52 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 4 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 3 km |
Places to eat. Lisbon leads by 12 points.12
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 68 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,496 | 1,172 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 27 |
Museums & heritage. Porto leads by 1 points.1
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 71 |
| Museums within 10 km | 124 | 101 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 54 | 57 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 56 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
Nightlife. Lisbon leads by 7 points.7
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,225 | 900 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 956 | 570 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 65 | 38 |
Nature & day trips. Lisbon leads by 23 points.23
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 7 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 54 | 61 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 30 hectares |
Good for families. Lisbon leads by 4 points.4
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 65 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 82 | 122 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 30 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Lisbon leads by 12 points.12
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 169 | 85 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lisbon and Porto are level on 74.
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 74 |
| Price level global | 55.9 | 55.9 |
| Daily budget | €109 | €109 |
Year-round weather. Lisbon leads by 7 points.7
| Lisbon | Porto | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 71 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14.9 °C to 28.4 °C | 13.8 °C to 25.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 121 mm | 22 mm to 181 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 3 |
Where they differ
Lisbon has about twice as many restaurants near the centre and about twice as many notable places within walking distance, so more of a trip can be done on foot. It also has around three times as much park space near the centre, and 11% of the surrounding land is protected against 7% around Porto.
Porto counters on the coast: 52 beaches nearby against Lisbon's 24, and the sea is 3km from the centre rather than 2km. It also has somewhat more tourist attractions close to the centre.
Where they are alike
The museum and heritage offering is close to level: Lisbon has somewhat more museums, but both sit within day-trip reach of 3 UNESCO-listed places, so either works for a trip built around historic sites.
Swimming works much the same way in both: the sea is 2km from Lisbon's centre and 3km from Porto's, and neither reaches a month of sea at 21°C or more. Families get 1 theme park within reach either way.
Which traveller are you?
Eating out and late nights point to Lisbon. It has about twice as many restaurants near the centre and about twice as many nightclubs, most of them central in both cities, though the range of kitchens is similar.
Beach-led trips point to Porto, with 52 beaches nearby against Lisbon's 24, though neither has a month with the sea at 21°C or more, and Lisbon's air stays warmer at 15-28°C.
Families with young children could go either way. Porto has somewhat more tourist attractions near the centre, while Lisbon has about three times as much park space; both have 1 theme park within reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it carries no information about which of these two cities costs more. The €109 daily budget beside it is one national estimate rather than a measurement of either place.
Porto's larger beach count is not a longer swimming season: neither city reaches a month with the sea at 21°C or more, and Porto's water tops out at 17°C. The warmest, driest months are also the busiest in both, while the quieter late-year months are the wettest, up to 181mm in Porto.
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). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).
Lisbon is the better pick from June to September: highs of 26-28°C, just 3-13mm of rain at the height of summer, and a sea that peaks at 19°C.
Porto's reliable window is narrower, July and August at 25°C with 22-33mm of rain. Either side of it the rain does the separating: Porto takes 158mm in October and stays wet into winter, so a late-season trip there is more likely to be spent indoors.
Getting there
| Flying from | Lisbon | Porto |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 25 m €118-145 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 5 m €88-127 OPO · 12 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 30 m €112-185 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 10 m €90-144 1 stop OPO · 12 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m €64-74 LIS · 7 km | 1 h 10 m €70-124 OPO · 12 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 50 m €74-97 LIS · 7 km | 1 h 45 m €81-135 OPO · 12 km |
| FunchalFNC | 1 h 50 m €132-180 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 5 m €67-130 OPO · 12 km |
| GenevaGVA | 2 h 25 m €171-195 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 10 m €128-166 1 stop OPO · 12 km |
| AmsterdamAMS | 2 h 50 m €167-189 LIS · 7 km | 2 h 35 m €158-202 1 stop OPO · 12 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 10 h 0 m €744-1049 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 10 h 15 m no fares OPO · 12 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 0 m €621-718 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 6 h 55 m no fares OPO · 12 km |
| LuandaLAD, NBJ | 7 h 30 m €567-920 LIS · 7 km | 7 h 45 m no fares OPO · 12 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 | Porto |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Portuguese | Portuguese |
| 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, UTC+1 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 112 |
| Elevation | 100 m | 104 m |
| Main airport | Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre153 non-stop destinations | Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre132 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 14 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Lisbon | Porto |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 545,796 | 231,800 |
| People per km² | 5,453 | 5,599 |
| Museums within 10 km | 78 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 3 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 106 | 70 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | None |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or Porto somewhere new.