VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Aspen or Quito?

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
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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, Quito 5: Aspen leads by 1 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, Quito 54: Quito leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, Quito 77: Quito leads by 55 points.
Nightlife. Aspen and Quito are level on 40.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, Quito 86: Aspen leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, Quito 55: Quito leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, Quito 32: Aspen leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, Quito 45: Aspen leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, Quito 40: Aspen leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, Quito 78: Quito leads by 73 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, Quito 38: Aspen leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, Quito 44: Aspen leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and Quito.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on getting around and families with your weighting.

Quito
Best match
50match

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
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
AspenQuito

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.

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

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). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenQuito
Official language-Spanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m2,850 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenQuito
City population7,0041,763,275
People per km²7004,735
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

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