VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Paphos 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 Paphos for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • prices

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

Choose Portland for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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. Paphos 76, Portland 20: Paphos leads by 56 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Portland 68: Portland leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Portland 38: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Portland 52: Portland leads by 14 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Portland 84: Portland leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Portland 58: Paphos leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Portland 55: Paphos leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Portland 62: Portland leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Portland 52: Portland leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Portland 38: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Portland 55: Portland leads by 33 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos and Portland are level on 42.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portland
52match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Paphos in July

30 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Portland in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosPortland

Where the figures come from

Paphos 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosPortland
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern Greek-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m152 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosPortland
City population35,961652,503
People per km²1,9871,736
Museums within 10 km417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.