VacationSelector
The lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park, Paphos
PaphosThe lighthouse in the Paphos Archaeological Park
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Paphos by Nikodem Nijaki, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Paphos or Sydney?

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
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sydney for

  • live music and the arts
  • shopping
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Paphos 45, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 32 points.
Culture & sights. Paphos 62, Sydney 60: Paphos leads by 2 points.
Nightlife. Paphos 38, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Paphos 70, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Paphos 64, Sydney 50: Paphos leads by 14 points.
Good for families. Paphos 68, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Paphos 40, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 35 points.
Shopping & style. Paphos 25, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 43 points.
Affordability. Paphos 52, Sydney 22: Paphos leads by 30 points.
Live music & performing arts. Paphos 22, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 51 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Paphos 42, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 13 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Paphos
50match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

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
No recordsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PaphosSydney

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). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePaphosSydney
Official languageTurkish, Greek, Modern GreekEnglish
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsG240 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideLeftLeft
Time zoneUTC+2, UTC+3 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number112000
Elevation72 m6 m
Main airportPaphos International Airport (PFO)8 km from centre58 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year17 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePaphosSydney
City population35,9615,450,496
People per km²1,987449
Museums within 10 km438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Paphos or Sydney 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.