VacationSelector
Hawthorne Bridge and downtown, Portland
PortlandHawthorne Bridge and downtown
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Portland by Cacophony, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Portland 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 Portland for

  • prices
  • day trips

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • culture and sights
  • families

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. Portland 20, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 75 points.
Food & drink. Portland 68, Sydney 77: Sydney leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Portland 38, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 22 points.
Nightlife. Portland 52, Sydney 60: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portland 84, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Portland 58, Sydney 50: Portland leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Portland 55, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Portland 62, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 13 points.
Shopping & style. Portland 52, Sydney 68: Sydney leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Portland 38, Sydney 22: Portland leads by 16 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portland 55, Sydney 73: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portland 42, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 13 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portland and Sydney.

Your match

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

Portland
52match

Wins on prices and day trips with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on beaches and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portland in July

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

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PortlandSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Portland: 1991-2020 normals, Portland International Airport (9.8 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortlandSydney
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation152 m6 m
Main airportPortland International Airport (PDX)10 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortlandSydney
City population652,5035,450,496
People per km²1,736449
Museums within 10 km1738
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portland 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.