VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Aspen or Palm Beach?

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
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Beach’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, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 76 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Palm Beach 47: Palm Beach leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Palm Beach 45: Palm Beach leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, Palm Beach 32: Aspen leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Palm Beach 58: Aspen leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Palm Beach 62: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Palm Beach 32: Aspen leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Palm Beach 66: Palm Beach leads by 16 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Palm Beach 12: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Palm Beach 45: Aspen leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

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.

Palm Beach
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and day trips 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 seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AspenPalm Beach

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). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenPalm Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m2 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenPalm Beach
City population7,0049,245
People per km²700322
Museums within 10 km24
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Aspen or Palm Beach 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. 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.