VacationSelector
A canal bridge in autumn, Amsterdam
AmsterdamA canal bridge in autumn
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain

Photos: Amsterdam by Hans, Pexels License; Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Amsterdam or Aspen?

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 Amsterdam for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Aspen’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. Amsterdam 25, Aspen 6: Amsterdam leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Amsterdam 58, Aspen 45: Amsterdam leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Amsterdam 82, Aspen 22: Amsterdam leads by 60 points.
Nightlife. Amsterdam 77, Aspen 40: Amsterdam leads by 37 points.
Nature & outdoors. Amsterdam 47, Aspen 95: Aspen leads by 48 points.
Day trips. Amsterdam 87, Aspen 30: Amsterdam leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Amsterdam 72, Aspen 55: Amsterdam leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Amsterdam 86, Aspen 72: Amsterdam leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Amsterdam 68, Aspen 50: Amsterdam leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Amsterdam 22, Aspen 5: Amsterdam leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Amsterdam 78, Aspen 50: Amsterdam leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Amsterdam 42, Aspen 50: Aspen leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Amsterdam and Aspen.

Your match

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

Amsterdam
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Aspen
43match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Amsterdam in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
84 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
17 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AmsterdamAspen

Where the figures come from

Amsterdam 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.

Amsterdam's sunshine is measured 35 km from the centre, at De Bilt.

Aspen 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. Amsterdam: 1991-2020 normals, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (12 km from centre). Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAmsterdamAspen
Official languageDutch-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation-2 m2,405 m
Main airportAmsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS)12 km from centre287 non-stop destinationsAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAmsterdamAspen
City population921,4687,004
People per km²4,208700
Museums within 10 km1012
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km50
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Amsterdam or Aspen 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.