VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Paphos or Quito?

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
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Paphos leads by 71 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Quito 54: Quito leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Quito 77: Quito leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Quito 40: Quito leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Quito 86: Quito leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Quito 55: Paphos leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Quito 32: Paphos leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Quito 45: Quito leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Quito 40: Quito leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Quito 78: Quito leads by 26 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Quito 38: Quito leads by 16 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Quito 44: Quito leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Paphos and Quito.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Quito
50match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosQuito
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number112911
Elevation72 m2,850 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosQuito
City population35,9611,763,275
People per km²1,9874,735
Museums within 10 km416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
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 Quito 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.