VacationSelector
Rabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira, Porto
PortoRabelo boats on the Douro and the Ribeira
Erasmus Bridge and the skyline, Rotterdam
RotterdamErasmus Bridge and the skyline

Photos: Porto by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Rotterdam by Bas Geerlings, Pexels License.

Porto or Rotterdam?

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 Porto for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • food and drink

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

Choose Rotterdam for

  • families
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Rotterdam’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. Porto 40, Rotterdam 27: Porto leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Porto 70, Rotterdam 52: Porto leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Porto 68, Rotterdam 58: Porto leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Porto 65, Rotterdam 52: Porto leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Porto 64, Rotterdam 44: Porto leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Porto 79, Rotterdam 85: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Porto 52, Rotterdam 66: Rotterdam leads by 14 points.
Getting around. Porto 66, Rotterdam 78: Rotterdam leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Porto 52, Rotterdam 55: Rotterdam leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Porto 62, Rotterdam 38: Porto leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Porto 52, Rotterdam 58: Rotterdam leads by 6 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Porto 34, Rotterdam 42: Rotterdam leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Porto and Rotterdam.

Your match

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

Porto
Best match
59match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

Rotterdam
55match

Wins on families 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.

Porto in July

25 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
22 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Rotterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
91 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
PortoRotterdam

Where the figures come from

Rotterdam 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.

Rotterdam's sunshine is measured 52 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Porto: 1991-2020 normals, Porto / Serra Do Pilar (2.1 km from centre). Rotterdam: 1993-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Rotterdam Airport Zestienhoven (3.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortoRotterdam
Official languagePortugueseDutch
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation104 m10 m
Main airportFrancisco de Sá Carneiro Airport (OPO)12 km from centre134 non-stop destinationsRotterdam The Hague Airport (RTM)5 km from centre53 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortoRotterdam
City population273,476664,311
People per km²6,6062,080
Museums within 10 km4240
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km35
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

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