Melbourne or Portland?
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.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
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. Melbourne leads by 55 points.55
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 19 | 27 |
| Coast distance | 4 km | 69 km |
| Water distance | 4 km | — |
Places to eat. Melbourne leads by 1 points.1
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 74 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,888 | 1,011 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 44 |
Museums & heritage. Melbourne leads by 14 points.14
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 35 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 23 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 24 | 15 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 57 | 65 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Melbourne leads by 16 points.16
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,921 | 942 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 1,200 | 518 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 62 | 55 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 124 | 32 |
Nature & day trips. Melbourne leads by 8 points.8
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 35 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 13 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 3 |
| Land share of disc % | 81 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 166 hectares | 37 hectares |
Good for families. Melbourne leads by 26 points.26
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 34 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 26 | 8 |
| Park area within 2 km | 166 hectares | 37 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Melbourne leads by 22 points.22
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 35 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 103 | 29 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Melbourne leads by 7 points.7
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 43 |
| Price level global | 90.2 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Melbourne leads by 11 points.11
| Melbourne | Portland | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.6 °C to 26.8 °C | 7.9 °C to 27.7 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 45 mm to 69 mm | 13 mm to 145 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 3 |
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. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Melbourne | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 15 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 2 h 15 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 15 h 35 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 1 h 45 m no fares PDX · 10 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 17 h 40 m no fares MEL · 19 km | 3 h 45 m no fares PDX · 10 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.
Before you go
| Measure | Melbourne | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | English | – |
| Currency | Australian Dollar (AUD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | I230 V, 50 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Left | Right |
| Time zone | UTC+10, UTC+11 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 000 | 911 |
| Elevation | 31 m | 152 m |
| Main airport | Melbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre66 non-stop destinations | Portland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre87 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Melbourne | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 5,350,705 | 652,503 |
| People per km² | 535 | 1,736 |
| Museums within 10 km | 42 | 17 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 86 | 82 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Melbourne or Portland somewhere new.