VacationSelector
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira

Photos: Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Melbourne or Porto?

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 Melbourne for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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

Choose Porto for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Porto’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. Melbourne 50, Porto 40: Melbourne leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Melbourne 75, Porto 70: Melbourne leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Melbourne 57, Porto 68: Porto leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Melbourne 75, Porto 65: Melbourne leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Melbourne 70, Porto 64: Melbourne leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Melbourne 62, Porto 79: Porto leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Melbourne 73, Porto 52: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Melbourne 76, Porto 66: Melbourne leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Melbourne 70, Porto 52: Melbourne leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Melbourne 31, Porto 62: Porto leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Melbourne 72, Porto 52: Melbourne leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Melbourne 54, Porto 34: Melbourne leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Melbourne and Porto.

Your match

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

Melbourne
Best match
64match

Wins on families and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Porto
59match

Wins on prices 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.

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
MelbournePorto

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre). Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMelbournePorto
Official languageEnglishPortuguese
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number000112
Elevation31 m104 m
Main airportMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinationsFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureMelbournePorto
City population5,350,705273,476
People per km²5356,606
Museums within 10 km4342
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km13
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Melbourne or Porto 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.