VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Botanical Building, Balboa Park, San Diego
San DiegoThe Botanical Building, Balboa Park

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; San Diego by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Lisbon or San Diego?

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
  • culture and sights
  • getting around

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

Choose San Diego for

  • families
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Diego’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, San Diego 72: San Diego leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, San Diego 62: Lisbon leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, San Diego 50: Lisbon leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, San Diego 48: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, San Diego 77: San Diego leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, San Diego 60: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, San Diego 96: San Diego leads by 34 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, San Diego 38: Lisbon leads by 28 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, San Diego 44: Lisbon leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, San Diego 26: Lisbon leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, San Diego 56: Lisbon leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, San Diego 45: San Diego leads by 9 points.
0255075100

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

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 culture and sights with your weighting.

San Diego
56match

Wins on families 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

San Diego in July

24 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
2 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonSan Diego

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). San Diego: 1991-2020 normals, San Diego International Airport (2.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonSan Diego
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 m129 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsSan Diego International Airport (SAN)3 km from centre87 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonSan Diego
City population545,7961,386,932
People per km²5,4531,438
Museums within 10 km8026
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or San Diego 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.