VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Paphos or Portofino?

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

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • families

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

Choose Portofino for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Portofino’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, Portofino 60: Paphos leads by 16 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Portofino 36: Paphos leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Portofino 22: Paphos leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Portofino 14: Paphos leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Portofino 77: Portofino leads by 7 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Portofino 76: Portofino leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Portofino 33: Paphos leads by 35 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Portofino 50: Portofino leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Portofino 29: Portofino leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Portofino 9: Paphos leads by 43 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Portofino 7: Paphos leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos and Portofino are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Portofino.

Your match

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

Paphos
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Portofino
38match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosPortofino

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.

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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). Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosPortofino
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekItalian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation72 m20 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre59 non-stop destinationsGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosPortofino
City population35,961355
People per km²1,987142
Museums within 10 km414
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos or Portofino 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates.

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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.