VacationSelector
Portofino and its bay from the hillside, Portofino
PortofinoPortofino and its bay from the hillside
Valletta from the water, Valletta
VallettaValletta from the water

Photos: Portofino by Michal Osmenda, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Valletta by Pho Tomass, Pexels License.

Portofino or Valletta?

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 Portofino for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Valletta for

  • culture and sights
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Valletta’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. Portofino 60, Valletta 68: Valletta leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Portofino 36, Valletta 55: Valletta leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Portofino 22, Valletta 76: Valletta leads by 54 points.
Nightlife. Portofino 14, Valletta 46: Valletta leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Portofino 77, Valletta 56: Portofino leads by 21 points.
Day trips. Portofino and Valletta are level on 76.
Good for families. Portofino 33, Valletta 58: Valletta leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Portofino 50, Valletta 62: Valletta leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Portofino 29, Valletta 38: Valletta leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Portofino 9, Valletta 50: Valletta leads by 41 points.
Live music & performing arts. Portofino 7, Valletta 44: Valletta leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Portofino 42, Valletta 32: Portofino leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Portofino and Valletta.

Your match

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

Portofino
38match

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

Valletta
Best match
55match

Wins on culture and sights and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Portofino in July

27 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Valletta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
PortofinoValletta

Where the figures come from

Portofino's temperatures are measured 31 km from the centre, at Genova / Sestri.

Portofino 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. Portofino: 1991-2020 normals, Genova / Sestri (31 km from centre). Valletta: 1991-2020 normals, Luqa (5.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePortofinoValletta
Official languageItalianEnglish, Maltese
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation20 m56 m
Main airportGenoa Cristoforo Colombo Airport (GOA)32 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsMalta International Airport (MLA)6 km from centre113 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasurePortofinoValletta
City population3555,197
People per km²1426,496
Museums within 10 km1416
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km23
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Portofino or Valletta somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.