VacationSelector

Macau or Paphos?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
Paphos

Photo: Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped

Your match

Macau
46
match

Wins on shopping and food and drink with your weighting.

Paphos
✓ Best match
50
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

MacauPaphos
Beaches & swimming. Paphos leads by 52 points.52
Food & drink. Macau leads by 32 points.32
Culture & sights. Macau and Paphos are level on 62.
Nightlife. Macau leads by 2 points.2
Nature & outdoors. Paphos leads by 65 points.65
Day trips. Paphos leads by 12 points.12
Good for families. Paphos leads by 20 points.20
Getting around. Macau leads by 20 points.20
Shopping & style. Macau leads by 33 points.33
Affordability. Paphos leads by 8 points.8
Live music & performing arts. Macau leads by 14 points.14
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos leads by 2 points.2
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Paphos.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyMacauPaphos
Daytime high32 °C30 °C
Night-time low26 °C21 °C
Rainfall in the month281 mm1 mm
Sunshine7 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature29 °C27 °C
Daylight13 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
Paphos
17
17
19
21
25
28
30
31
29
27
23
19
Sea temperature, °C
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Paphos
17
17
17
18
21
24
27
28
27
25
22
19
Rainfall, mm
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Paphos
81
47
29
17
10
2
1
0
5
14
42
98
Daylight, hours per day
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Paphos
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
14
12
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5
Paphos
No sunshine record

Where the figures come from

Paphos's rainfall is measured 111 km from the centre, at Larnaca Airport.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromMacauPaphos
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
12 h 0 m
€570-666
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
4 h 25 m
€125-167
PFO · 8 km
ManchesterMAN
12 h 0 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
4 h 40 m
no fares
PFO · 8 km
Tel Aviv YafoTLV
9 h 45 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
1 h 5 m
€149-173
PFO · 8 km
ViennaVIE
10 h 50 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
3 h 0 m
€206-323
1 stop
PFO · 8 km
BudapestBUD
10 h 40 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
2 h 45 m
€143-223
PFO · 8 km
AmsterdamAMS
11 h 35 m
€637
HKG · 41 km
4 h 5 m
€253-340
1 stop
PFO · 8 km
BrusselsBRU, CRL
11 h 40 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
4 h 5 m
€176-392
2 stops
PFO · 8 km
Abu DhabiAUH
7 h 45 m
€690-962
2 stops
HKG · 41 km
3 h 25 m
no fares
LCA · 110 km
ParisCDG, ORY, BVA
11 h 55 m
€586-713
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
4 h 5 m
€197-331
1 stop
PFO · 8 km
AlmatyALA
5 h 20 m
no fares
CAN · 136 km
5 h 10 m
€377-465
2 stops
LCA · 110 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 2026-09 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

MeasureMacauPaphos
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Euro (EUR)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzG240 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number999112
Elevation22 m72 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-17 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauPaphos
City population682,10035,961
People per km²5,9161,987
Museums within 10 km284
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau or Paphos somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.