VacationSelector
A yellow tram in a narrow street, Lisbon
LisbonA yellow tram in a narrow street
Ca' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay, Sarasota
SarasotaCa' d'Zan, the Ringling mansion on Sarasota Bay

Photos: Lisbon by Riccardo Toso, Pexels License; Sarasota by Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Lisbon or Sarasota?

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

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sarasota for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Sarasota’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, Sarasota 86: Sarasota leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Lisbon 75, Sarasota 44: Lisbon leads by 31 points.
Culture & sights. Lisbon 78, Sarasota 45: Lisbon leads by 33 points.
Nightlife. Lisbon 75, Sarasota 28: Lisbon leads by 47 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lisbon 75, Sarasota 55: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Lisbon 82, Sarasota 50: Lisbon leads by 32 points.
Good for families. Lisbon 62, Sarasota 68: Sarasota leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Lisbon 66, Sarasota 28: Lisbon leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Lisbon 60, Sarasota 40: Lisbon leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Lisbon 55, Sarasota 30: Lisbon leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lisbon 60, Sarasota 58: Lisbon leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lisbon 36, Sarasota 45: Sarasota leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lisbon and Sarasota.

Your match

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

Lisbon
Best match
65match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Sarasota
48match

Wins on beaches and wellness 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

Sarasota in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
195 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
LisbonSarasota

Where the figures come from

Sarasota has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Sarasota's sunshine is measured 70 km from the centre, at Tampa International Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Sarasota: 2006-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sarasota / Ballentine Manor (6.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLisbonSarasota
Official languagePortuguese-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation100 m7 m
Main airportLisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre156 non-stop destinationsSarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ)7 km from centre70 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLisbonSarasota
City population545,79654,842
People per km²5,453840
Museums within 10 km803
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

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