VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
São Paulo Cathedral, Sao Paulo
Sao PauloSão Paulo Cathedral

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Sao Paulo by Webysther Nunes, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Sao Paulo?

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

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Sao Paulo for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Sao Paulo’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, Sao Paulo 42: Lisbon leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Sao Paulo 84: Sao Paulo leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Sao Paulo 60: Lisbon leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Sao Paulo 86: Sao Paulo leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Sao Paulo 48: Lisbon leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Sao Paulo 47: Lisbon leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Sao Paulo 52: Lisbon leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Sao Paulo 44: Lisbon leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Sao Paulo 70: Sao Paulo leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Sao Paulo 62: Sao Paulo leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Sao Paulo 76: Sao Paulo leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Sao Paulo 25: Lisbon leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Sao Paulo.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Sao Paulo
58match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife 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

Sao Paulo in July

23 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
53 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonSao Paulo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Sao Paulo: 1991-2020 normals, Sao Paulo (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonSao Paulo
Official languagePortuguesePortuguese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Brazilian Real (BRL)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCN60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number112Police 190, ambulance 192, fire 193
Elevation100 m760 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsSão Paulo/Guarulhos–Governor André Franco Montoro International Airport (GRU)21 km from centre104 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonSao Paulo
City population545,79611,451,999
People per km²5,4537,519
Museums within 10 km8090
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 Sao Paulo 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.