VacationSelector
The Georgia State Capitol, Atlanta
AtlantaThe Georgia State Capitol
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Atlanta by DXR, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Atlanta or New York?

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

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

  • getting around
  • shopping
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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, New York 50: New York leads by 40 points.
Food & drink. Atlanta 68, New York 92: New York leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Atlanta 55, New York 89: New York leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Atlanta 65, New York 97: New York leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Atlanta 60, New York 55: Atlanta leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Atlanta 52, New York 68: New York leads by 16 points.
Good for families. Atlanta and New York are level on 70.
Getting around. Atlanta 28, New York 82: New York leads by 54 points.
Shopping & style. Atlanta 50, New York 97: New York leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Atlanta 40, New York 12: Atlanta leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. Atlanta 62, New York 99: New York leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Atlanta 33, New York 42: New York leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Atlanta and New York.

Your match

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

Atlanta
49match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and shopping 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 seasea
14 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
AtlantaNew York

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). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAtlantaNew York
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation225 m25 m
Main airportHartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAtlantaNew York
City population498,7158,804,190
People per km²1,4337,256
Museums within 10 km27157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Atlanta or New York 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.