VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Riga?

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

  • food and drink
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Riga for

  • wellness
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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, Riga 40: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Riga 52: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Riga 66: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Riga 52: Lisbon leads by 23 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Riga 55: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Riga 60: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Riga 50: Lisbon leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Riga 68: Riga leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Riga 45: Lisbon leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Riga 62: Riga leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Riga 65: Riga leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Riga 50: Riga leads by 14 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on food and drink and nightlife with your weighting.

Riga
55match

Wins on wellness and prices 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

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonRiga

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonRiga
Official languagePortugueseLatvian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation100 m6 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days-

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonRiga
City population545,796588,911
People per km²5,453-
Museums within 10 km8012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or Riga 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.