VacationSelector
Skiers at the Albion base of the ski area, Alta, Utah
Alta, UtahSkiers at the Albion base of the ski area
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park

Photos: Alta, Utah by Sumanch, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Alta, Utah or Chicago?

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
  • wellness

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

Choose Chicago for

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

What lies behind each score is written up on Chicago’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, Chicago 50: Chicago leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Alta, Utah 15, Chicago 80: Chicago leads by 65 points.
Culture & sights. Alta, Utah 5, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 73 points.
Nightlife. Alta, Utah 4, Chicago 77: Chicago leads by 73 points.
Nature & outdoors. Alta, Utah 90, Chicago 48: Alta, Utah leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Alta, Utah 40, Chicago 42: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Alta, Utah 30, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 48 points.
Getting around. Alta, Utah 35, Chicago 72: Chicago leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Alta, Utah 4, Chicago 70: Chicago leads by 66 points.
Affordability. Alta, Utah 15, Chicago 33: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Alta, Utah 3, Chicago 82: Chicago leads by 79 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Alta, Utah 35, Chicago 33: Alta, Utah leads by 2 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Alta, Utah and Chicago.

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 wellness with your weighting.

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and culture and sights 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 seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Alta, UtahChicago

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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAlta, UtahChicago
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 m179 m
Main airportSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)37 km from centre108 non-stop destinationsChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAlta, UtahChicago
City population2282,746,388
People per km²194,529
Museums within 10 km044
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Alta, Utah or Chicago 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.