VacationSelector
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Milan 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 Milan for

  • culture and sights
  • shopping
  • day trips

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

Choose Portland for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

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. Milan and Portland are level on 20.
Food & drink. Milan 78, Portland 68: Milan leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Milan 78, Portland 38: Milan leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Milan 66, Portland 52: Milan leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Milan 65, Portland 84: Portland leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Milan 91, Portland 58: Milan leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Milan and Portland are level on 55.
Getting around. Milan 79, Portland 62: Milan leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Milan 92, Portland 52: Milan leads by 40 points.
Affordability. Milan 33, Portland 38: Portland leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Milan 82, Portland 55: Milan leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Milan and Portland are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Milan and Portland.

Your match

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

Milan
Best match
65match

Wins on culture and sights and shopping with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 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
MilanPortland

Where the figures come from

Milan has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMilanPortland
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation138 m152 m
Main airportMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureMilanPortland
City population1,354,196652,503
People per km²7,4531,736
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 Milan 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.