VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Lisbon or San Francisco?

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
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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 Francisco 25: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, San Francisco 68: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, San Francisco 58: Lisbon leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, San Francisco 72: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, San Francisco 58: Lisbon leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, San Francisco 14: Lisbon leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 6 points.
0255075100

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

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 beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
59match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink 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 Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonSan Francisco
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 m16 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonSan Francisco
City population545,796873,965
People per km²5,4531,455
Museums within 10 km8051
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
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 San Francisco 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.