You’re sitting there with two tabs open, one with flights to Faro and one with flights to Malaga, and the prices are close enough that it’s not helping you decide and you’ve been going back and forth for three days. Portugal or Spain for July. They’re next to each other, they’ve both got beaches, they’ve both got sunshine, and every comparison you’ve read so far has told you “it depends on what you’re looking for” which is the travel-writing equivalent of saying nothing at all.
I’ve done both in July and the differences are more specific than “one’s quieter and one’s louder,” so here’s what actually matters when you’re trying to pick.
Flights from UK airports are cheap to both, but Faro edges it
Getting to either country from most UK airports is easy and cheap right now, and prices have actually dropped about 6% year on year according to Kayak. You can get a one-way to Faro out of Luton for about £23. Liverpool to Porto for about £36. Stansted to Lisbon for about £52. Spain is similar, Menorca from about £41, Malaga and Barcelona in the same range.
Flight time is basically identical either way, two and a half to three hours, so neither country wins on convenience. Skyscanner flagged 29 June to 5 July as the cheapest week for summer flights this year though, which is worth knowing if you’ve got any flexibility at all on when you fly out.
The heat gap in July is bigger than you’d think
This is the thing that catches people out and I wish someone had told me properly before my first July in Andalusia.
Portugal’s Algarve coast sits at about 28 to 30°C in July. Warm, properly warm, but there’s an Atlantic breeze that takes the edge off and evenings cool down enough that eating outside at nine o’clock is actually pleasant. Lisbon is similar. You can walk around, you can sightsee with kids, you can sit on the beach all afternoon without feeling like you’re being slowly cooked.
Southern Spain in July is a completely different animal. Seville hits 38 to 40°C regularly and the heat is dry and heavy and it doesn’t really let up until after dark. Malaga and the Costa del Sol are a bit more manageable at 30 to 33°C, and the Balearics sit around the same, but go anywhere inland and you’re looking at mid to high thirties that genuinely change what you can do with your day. I spent an afternoon trying to see the Alhambra in Granada in July once and by two o’clock we’d given up and were sitting in a café drinking water and waiting for the temperature to drop below the point where walking felt like punishment.
If you want beach warmth you can actually enjoy all day, the Algarve is the safer pick. If you want it genuinely hot and you’re fine with planning your days around the heat rather than despite it, southern Spain.
Portugal is cheaper day to day and the gap adds up fast
Both countries fall in the £40 to £60 per day range for a mid-range trip, but Portugal sits reliably at the lower end of that and Spain at the higher, especially along the popular coasts.
Two courses and wine for two people in the Algarve or Porto runs roughly €30 to €50 total. The same meal in Barcelona or the Costa del Sol is more like €50 to €80. A bottle of something drinkable from a Portuguese supermarket costs €3 to €5. The Spanish equivalent is €5 to €8. Coffee is cheaper. Beer is cheaper. Accommodation is cheaper for comparable quality.
None of those gaps are huge on their own but stretch them across a week with a family and you’re looking at £150 to £300 in real savings, which is a couple of extra meals out or a full day’s activity budget that you’ve got back just by being in Portugal instead of Spain.
A holiday in Portugal often feels like a well-kept secret and honestly the pricing is the main reason why. Comparable beaches, comparable weather (minus the extreme heat), comparable food quality, meaningfully less per day. That’s not a feeling, that’s just maths.
Portugal’s strength is the coastline and the food, and both are genuinely underrated
The Algarve gets most of the attention and it’s earned. Golden cliffs, sheltered coves, water that’s actually warm enough to swim in, and if you walk ten minutes past the beach everyone’s sitting on you’ll find a quieter one that’s just as good. But the thing that got me on my first trip was how good the food is for how little it costs. Grilled fish and seafood rice and a cold beer sitting outside with a view of the ocean for under €20 a head is a normal lunch there, not a special occasion, and nobody rushes you.
Lisbon and Porto are both worth a few nights if you can swing it. The tiled buildings, the trams, the cobbled streets, the river views. Porto in particular feels like it hasn’t quite been discovered yet even though everyone says that about everywhere, and in Porto’s case it’s still sort of true.
Spain’s strength is the variety and nobody else in Europe comes close
What Spain has that Portugal can’t really match is scale. Portugal is beautiful but it’s a smaller country with a more consistent feel to it. Spain is enormous and every region is practically a different country with its own food, its own language, its own architecture, its own attitude. You could do a week in Barcelona and a week in Seville and have two completely different holidays.
The cultural stuff is heavier too. Three days in Barcelona just looking at buildings. Madrid’s food scene runs until two in the morning. Seville’s old town after dark when the temperature finally drops and the whole city comes alive. Flamenco that’s being performed for locals not tourists, tapas at a counter at eleven pm surrounded by people who’ve been eating like this their entire lives.
If the word you want your holiday described by is “relaxing” go to Portugal. If the word is “alive” go to Spain. They’re both great answers to different questions.
A few practical bits before you book
- Driving in Portugal has a toll trap. The motorway tolling is electronic with no barriers, and most UK hire car drivers don’t realise they need to register the vehicle or arrange a toll box at the rental desk. Ignore this and you’ll get fines in the post months later. Spain’s toll system is more conventional. Sort this out at the airport, it takes five minutes.
- Healthcare works the same in both. Carry your GHIC card (the one that replaced the old EHIC). It covers you at state hospitals and GPs. Doesn’t cover private treatment or getting flown home, so travel insurance is still non-negotiable.
- The exchange rate is decent right now. Sterling is buying roughly €1.17 to €1.19 which isn’t amazing historically but it’s better than it was a year ago.
- Language isn’t a problem in tourist areas in either country, though Portuguese people tend to speak slightly better English on average than their Spanish equivalents in comparable resort towns. Varies by region obviously.
The honest answer for July specifically
Portugal gives you more holiday per pound. Lower daily costs, cooler (but still warm) temperatures, a coastline that rivals anything in Spain, and food that punches well above its price. For a family wanting a week of beach and relaxation without the budget anxiety, it’s the smarter pick and it’s not particularly close.
Spain gives you more range, more energy, more cultural weight, and properly scorching heat if that’s what you’re after. Barcelona and Madrid alone justify the trip. But the daily spend is higher, the July heat in the south is genuinely intense, and the popular coastal areas feel more crowded.
Most people I know who’ve done both end up going back to Portugal more often, which probably tells you something.