Lisbon or Washington DC?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Lisbon leads by 39 points.39
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 18 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 24 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 2 km | 34 km |
| Water distance | 2 km | 34 km |
Places to eat. Lisbon leads by 3 points.3
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 80 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,496 | 1,666 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 36 |
Museums & heritage. Lisbon leads by 15 points.15
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 124 | 83 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 54 | 55 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 66 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 3 | 0 |
Nightlife. Lisbon leads by 4 points.4
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 61 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,225 | 1,029 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 956 | 593 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 78 | 58 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 65 | 54 |
Nature & day trips. Lisbon leads by 14 points.14
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 11 | 10 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 1 |
| Land share of disc % | 54 | 94 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 96 hectares |
Good for families. Lisbon leads by 31 points.31
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 69 | 38 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 82 | 7 |
| Park area within 2 km | 77 hectares | 96 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Washington DC leads by 10 points.10
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 66 | 76 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 169 | 305 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lisbon leads by 31 points.31
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 43 |
| Price level global | 55.9 | 100 |
| Daily budget | €109 | — |
Year-round weather. Lisbon leads by 16 points.16
| Lisbon | Washington DC | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 78 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 14.9 °C to 28.4 °C | 7 °C to 31.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 3 mm to 121 mm | 65 mm to 108 mm |
| Dry months | 4 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lisbon: 1991-2020 normals, Lisboa / Geof (1.1 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Lisbon | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 2 h 30 m €112-185 LIS · 7 km | 7 h 35 m €507-561 1 stop IAD · 37 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 7 h 0 m €621-718 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 1 h 5 m €233-271 DCA · 5 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 2 h 25 m €118-145 LIS · 7 km | 8 h 0 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| MadridMAD | 1 h 15 m €64-74 LIS · 7 km | 7 h 50 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 1 h 50 m €74-97 LIS · 7 km | 8 h 20 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 7 h 25 m €480-569 2 stops LIS · 7 km | 1 h 20 m €158-333 IAD · 37 km |
| Sao PauloGRU, VCP, CGH, RTE | 10 h 0 m €744-1049 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 9 h 40 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 6 h 40 m €649-673 1 stop LIS · 7 km | 1 h 25 m €162-173 DCA · 5 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 12 h 55 m no fares LIS · 7 km | 13 h 50 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
| Abu DhabiAUH | 7 h 50 m no fares LIS · 7 km | 14 h 5 m no fares IAD · 37 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Lisbon | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | Portuguese | – |
| Currency | Euro (EUR) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | CF230 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC, UTC+1 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 112 | 911 |
| Elevation | 100 m | 72 m |
| Main airport | Lisbon Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS)7 km from centre153 non-stop destinations | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre103 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 14 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Lisbon | Washington DC |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 545,796 | 689,545 |
| People per km² | 5,453 | 3,896 |
| Museums within 10 km | 78 | 99 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 3 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 106 | 82 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lisbon or Washington DC somewhere new.