VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Alta, Utah or Austin?

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 Alta, Utah for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Alta, Utah’s own page.

Choose Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Austin’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. Alta, Utah 3, Austin 30: Austin leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Austin 66: Austin leads by 51 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Austin 40: Austin leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Austin 65: Austin leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Austin 57: Alta, Utah leads by 33 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Austin 58: Austin leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Austin 55: Austin leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Austin 30: Alta, Utah leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Austin 45: Austin leads by 41 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Austin 33: Austin leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Austin 77: Austin leads by 74 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Austin 40: Austin leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Austin.

Your match

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

Alta, Utah
23match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Alta, Utah in July

22 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahAustin

Where the figures come from

Alta, Utah has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Alta, Utah: 1991-2020 normals, TerraClimate 4 km grid at the town, no weather station within 90 km. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahAustin
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,610 m149 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahAustin
City population228961,855
People per km²191,217
Museums within 10 km021
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Austin somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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. Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.