VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Colosseum, Rome
RomeThe Colosseum

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Rome by Tournasol7, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Paphos or Rome?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Rome for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Rome’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, Rome 50: Paphos leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Rome 82: Rome leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Rome 99: Rome leads by 37 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Rome 58: Rome leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Rome 58: Paphos leads by 12 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Rome 92: Rome leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Rome 50: Paphos leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Rome 60: Rome leads by 20 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Rome 72: Rome leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Rome 38: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Rome 68: Rome leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Rome 40: Paphos leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Paphos
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Rome
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts 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

Rome in July

31 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosRome

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.

Rome's sunshine is measured 31 km from the centre, at Vigna Di Valle.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Paphos: 1991-2020 normals, Paphos Airport (8.4 km from centre). Rome: 1991-2020 normals, Roma / Ciampino (15.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosRome
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 m21 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsRome–Fiumicino Leonardo da Vinci International Airport (FCO)23 km from centre242 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosRome
City population35,9612,748,109
People per km²1,9872,135
Museums within 10 km4178
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km27
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos or Rome 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.