VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Atlanta 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 Atlanta for

  • culture and sights
  • families
  • prices

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

Choose Austin for

  • beaches
  • live music and the arts
  • wellness

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. Atlanta 10, Austin 30: Austin leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, Austin 66: Atlanta leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, Austin 40: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta and Austin are level on 65.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, Austin 57: Atlanta leads by 3 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, Austin 58: Austin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Atlanta 70, Austin 55: Atlanta leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, Austin 30: Austin leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, Austin 45: Atlanta leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, Austin 33: Atlanta leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, Austin 77: Austin leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, Austin 40: Austin leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and Austin.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Atlanta
49match

Wins on culture and sights and families with your weighting.

Austin
50match

Wins on beaches and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Atlanta in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
120 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 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

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaAustin

Where the figures come from

Atlanta 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. Atlanta: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Atlanta / Carroll Heights (12.5 km from centre). Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaAustin
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation225 m149 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaAustin
City population498,715961,855
People per km²1,4331,217
Museums within 10 km2721
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 Atlanta 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.