VacationSelector

Macau or Shanghai?

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 Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
Shanghai

Photo: xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped

Your match

Macau
46
match

Wins on beaches with your weighting.

Shanghai
✓ Best match
66
match

Wins on nightlife and day trips 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.

MacauShanghai
Beaches & swimming. Macau leads by 14 points.14
Food & drink. Shanghai leads by 11 points.11
Culture & sights. Shanghai leads by 10 points.10
Nightlife. Shanghai leads by 40 points.40
Nature & outdoors. Shanghai leads by 20 points.20
Day trips. Shanghai leads by 38 points.38
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 32 points.32
Getting around. Shanghai leads by 25 points.25
Shopping & style. Shanghai leads by 24 points.24
Affordability. Shanghai leads by 11 points.11
Live music & performing arts. Shanghai leads by 30 points.30
Wellness & relaxation. Shanghai leads by 15 points.15
0255075100

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

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
JulyMacauShanghai
Daytime high32 °C33 °C
Night-time low26 °C26 °C
Rainfall in the month281 mm151 mm
Sunshine7 hours a day6 hours a day
Sea temperature29 °C26 °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
Shanghai
9
11
15
21
26
28
33
33
29
23
18
12
Sea temperature, °C
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Shanghai
8
7
10
14
19
22
26
28
26
21
17
12
Rainfall, mm
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Shanghai
69
65
88
72
84
192
151
216
97
64
53
43
Daylight, hours per day
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Shanghai
10
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
11
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5
Shanghai
4
4
5
5
6
4
6
6
5
5
4
4

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromMacauShanghai
BangkokBKK, DMK
2 h 35 m
€180-240
MFM · 7 km
4 h 5 m
€170-196
PVG · 33 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
3 h 0 m
€181-203
1 stop
MFM · 7 km
2 h 0 m
€150-154
PVG · 33 km
ChongqingCKG, CQW
1 h 55 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
2 h 25 m
€175-196
PVG · 33 km
ChengduTFU, CTU
2 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
2 h 35 m
€216-247
PVG · 33 km
TokyoHND, NRT
4 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
2 h 45 m
€326-382
PVG · 33 km
SeoulICN, GMP
3 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
1 h 40 m
€173-183
PVG · 33 km
XiamenXMN
1 h 20 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
1 h 35 m
no fares
SHA · 14 km
Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY
14 h 25 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
12 h 55 m
€606-798
1 stop
PVG · 33 km
Abu DhabiAUH
7 h 45 m
€690-962
2 stops
HKG · 41 km
8 h 20 m
no fares
PVG · 33 km
VladivostokVVO
4 h 5 m
€367-653
2 stops
MFM · 7 km
2 h 35 m
no fares
PVG · 33 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 2026-10 to 2026-12, 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

MeasureMacauShanghai
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChinesePutonghua
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC+8
Emergency number999Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation22 m4 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre208 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-6 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauShanghai
City population682,10024,870,895
People per km²5,9163,922
Museums within 10 km2844
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau or Shanghai 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

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.