VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Austin for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • live music and the arts

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. Aspen 6, Austin 30: Austin leads by 24 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Austin 66: Austin leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Austin 40: Austin leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Austin 65: Austin leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Austin 57: Aspen leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Austin 58: Austin leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Aspen and Austin are level on 55.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Austin 30: Aspen leads by 42 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Austin 45: Aspen leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Austin 33: Austin leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Austin 77: Austin leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Austin 40: Aspen leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Austin.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

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

Austin
Best match
50match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 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
AspenAustin

Where the figures come from

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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenAustin
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
Elevation2,405 m149 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenAustin
City population7,004961,855
People per km²7001,217
Museums within 10 km221
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 Aspen or Austin 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. 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. 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.