VacationSelector
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea
The House of the Blackheads at dusk, Riga
RigaThe House of the Blackheads at dusk

Photos: Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Riga by Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Positano or Riga?

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 Positano for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose Riga for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Riga’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. Positano 77, Riga 40: Positano leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Positano 40, Riga 52: Riga leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Positano 22, Riga 66: Riga leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Positano 22, Riga 52: Riga leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Positano 80, Riga 55: Positano leads by 25 points.
Day trips. Positano 88, Riga 60: Positano leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Positano 28, Riga 50: Riga leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Positano 35, Riga 68: Riga leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Positano and Riga are level on 45.
Affordability. Positano 10, Riga 62: Riga leads by 52 points.
Live music & performing arts. Positano 15, Riga 65: Riga leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Positano 45, Riga 50: Riga leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Positano and Riga.

Your match

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

Positano
42match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

Riga
Best match
55match

Wins on prices 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.

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Riga in July

24 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
87 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
PositanoRiga

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre). Riga: 1991-2020 normals, Riga (4.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePositanoRiga
Official languageItalianLatvian
CurrencyEuro (EUR)Euro (EUR)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzCF230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+2, UTC+3 in summer
Emergency number112112
Elevation142 m6 m
Main airportNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinationsRiga International Airport (RIX)9 km from centre93 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasurePositanoRiga
City population3,729588,911
People per km²429-
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km51
Swim season, months above 21 °C5 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Positano or Riga 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.