VacationSelector
Wat Xieng Thong temple, Luang Prabang
Luang PrabangWat Xieng Thong temple
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Luang Prabang by Basile Morin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Luang Prabang or Portofino?

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 Luang Prabang for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • wellness

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

Choose Portofino for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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. Luang Prabang 14, Portofino 60: Portofino leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Luang Prabang 42, Portofino 36: Luang Prabang leads by 6 points.
Culture & sights. Luang Prabang 65, Portofino 22: Luang Prabang leads by 43 points.
Nightlife. Luang Prabang 8, Portofino 14: Portofino leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Luang Prabang 68, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Luang Prabang 35, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 41 points.
Good for families. Luang Prabang 38, Portofino 33: Luang Prabang leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Luang Prabang and Portofino are level on 50.
Shopping & style. Luang Prabang 38, Portofino 29: Luang Prabang leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Luang Prabang 80, Portofino 9: Luang Prabang leads by 71 points.
Live music & performing arts. Luang Prabang 18, Portofino 7: Luang Prabang leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Luang Prabang 60, Portofino 42: Luang Prabang leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Luang Prabang and Portofino.

Your match

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

Luang Prabang
Best match
43match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Luang Prabang in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
250 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
No seasea
13 hdaylight a day

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
Luang PrabangPortofino

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Luang Prabang: 1991-2020 normals, Luang-Prabang (0.8 km from centre). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLuang PrabangPortofino
Official languageLaoItalian
CurrencyLao Kip (LAK)Euro (EUR)
SocketsABCEF230 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+7UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 191, ambulance 195, fire 190112
Elevation305 m20 m
Main airportLuang Phabang International Airport (LPQ)4 km from centre7 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLuang PrabangPortofino
City population53,792355
People per km²-142
Museums within 10 km014
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C-4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Luang Prabang or Portofino 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.