Atlanta or West Palm Beach?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 2 points apart
Wins on nightlife and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Atlanta if you want a city trip: the wider choice of restaurants, many more museums, far more bars and clubs, and notable places packed close enough to walk between.
Choose West Palm Beach if the point is water and open country: 10 beaches, sea above 21°C every month of the year, and far more protected land around the city.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. West Palm Beach leads by 88 points.88
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 88 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 373 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | — | 0 km |
Places to eat. Atlanta leads by 22 points.22
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 59 | 37 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 739 | 262 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 23 | 14 |
Museums & heritage. Atlanta leads by 18 points.18
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 35 | 17 |
| Museums within 10 km | 41 | 5 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 16 | 3 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 39 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Atlanta leads by 29 points.29
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 49 | 20 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 531 | 132 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 284 | 90 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 53 | 68 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 46 | 10 |
Nature & day trips. West Palm Beach leads by 38 points.38
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 31 | 69 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 1 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 113 hectares | 34 hectares |
Good for families. Atlanta leads by 11 points.11
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 32 | 21 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 113 hectares | 34 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Atlanta leads by 28 points.28
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 40 | 12 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 39 | 8 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Atlanta and West Palm Beach are level on 43.
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. West Palm Beach leads by 8 points.8
| Atlanta | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 67 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 12 °C to 32 °C | 24 °C to 32.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 80 mm to 121 mm | 67 mm to 217 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Atlanta has many times as many bars and clubs, with about half of them near the centre, so evenings can run late without much planning; it also has far more notable places within walking distance of the centre, and about three times as much park space close in.
West Palm Beach has 10 beaches to Atlanta's none and sea above 21°C in all 12 months. Around it, 15% of the land is protected against 1% around Atlanta, which makes day trips into open country straightforward.
Where they are alike
Both are warm at the height of summer, Atlanta reaching 32°C in July and West Palm Beach 33°C in August, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so rain is a year-round possibility.
Neither is strongly geared to families: each has 1 theme park within reach, with Atlanta leaning on park space and West Palm Beach on attractions near the centre. Museums are modest in both, and neither has a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
Someone after evenings out and a wide range of kitchens should take Atlanta: about three times as many restaurants near the centre, many more bars and clubs, and enough notable places within walking distance to fill a weekend on foot.
A swimmer or beach-first traveller wants West Palm Beach: 10 beaches nearby and sea between 25°C and 30°C across the year, so the water is usable in January as well as in August.
Anyone planning day trips into open country is better served by West Palm Beach, where 15% of the surrounding land is protected. In Atlanta the greenery sits closer in, as park space near the centre rather than country beyond it.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value figure here is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, and the dataset carries no daily budget for either. No cost comparison is possible between Atlanta and West Palm Beach, and nothing on this page says one is cheaper than the other.
No weather station near either city records sunshine hours, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Note too that West Palm Beach's warmest sea, 30°C in August, arrives in its wettest month at 217mm, so the beach strength and the heaviest rain fall together.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Atlanta: 1991-2020 normals, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta (29.2 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).
Atlanta is at its best in April and May and again in September and October, with highs of 23-27°C and October the driest month at 80mm. Rain sits between 90mm and 121mm in every other month, and January highs near 12°C make winter a colder, quieter trip.
West Palm Beach suits November to April, when highs run 24-28°C, rain is lightest in February at 67mm and the sea holds 25-26°C. Summer stays warm but turns heavy, with 214mm in June and 217mm in August.
Getting there
| Flying from | Atlanta | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €152-200 ATL · 14 km | 2 h 35 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 40 m €84-125 ATL · 14 km | 2 h 20 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 1 h 50 m €161-221 ATL · 14 km | 2 h 50 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| PhiladelphiaPHL, TTN | 1 h 55 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 2 h 30 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 2 h 0 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 2 h 30 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 2 h 5 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 2 h 25 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 4 h 40 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 5 h 35 m €349-373 2 stops FLL · 72 km |
| MadridMAD | 8 h 50 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 105 km |
| Marsh HarbourMHH | 1 h 55 m no fares ATL · 14 km | 1 h 0 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Atlanta | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 225 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)14 km from centre238 non-stop destinations | President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre37 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Atlanta | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 498,715 | 117,415 |
| People per km² | 1,433 | 786 |
| Museums within 10 km | 27 | 4 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 56 | 18 |
| 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 Atlanta or West Palm Beach somewhere new.