VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Portland?

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 Madrid for

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • day trips

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Portland’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. Madrid 5, Portland 20: Portland leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Portland 68: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Portland 38: Madrid leads by 48 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Portland 52: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Portland 84: Portland leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Portland 58: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Portland 55: Madrid leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Portland 62: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Portland 52: Madrid leads by 23 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Portland 38: Madrid leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Portland 55: Madrid leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Portland 42: Portland leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Portland.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Portland in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MadridPortland

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridPortland
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m152 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPortland
City population3,506,730652,503
People per km²5,8011,736
Museums within 10 km8817
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Portland 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.