VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
A cable car over the brick-red houses, La Paz
La PazA cable car over the brick-red houses

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; La Paz by Arabsalam, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Aspen or La Paz?

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

  • families
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose La Paz for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Aspen leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, La Paz 50: La Paz leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, La Paz 52: La Paz leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, La Paz 38: Aspen leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, La Paz 82: Aspen leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, La Paz 40: La Paz leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, La Paz 10: Aspen leads by 45 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, La Paz 45: Aspen leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, La Paz 45: Aspen leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 87 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, La Paz 35: Aspen leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, La Paz 12: Aspen leads by 38 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and La Paz.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Aspen
43match

Wins on families and wellness with your weighting.

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices 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.

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
15 hdaylight a day

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AspenLa Paz

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.

La Paz 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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureAspenLa Paz
Official language-Spanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m3,640 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenLa Paz
City population7,004755,732
People per km²7001,601
Museums within 10 km221
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km01

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen or La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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.