VacationSelector
The Texas State Capitol under a blue sky, Austin
AustinThe Texas State Capitol under a blue sky
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals

Photos: Austin by LoneStarMike, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Austin or Fort Lauderdale?

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 Austin for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • families
  • shopping

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Lauderdale’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. Austin 30, Fort Lauderdale 88: Fort Lauderdale leads by 58 points.
Food & drink. Austin 66, Fort Lauderdale 47: Austin leads by 19 points.
Culture & sights. Austin 40, Fort Lauderdale 28: Austin leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Austin 65, Fort Lauderdale 52: Austin leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Austin 57, Fort Lauderdale 62: Fort Lauderdale leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Austin and Fort Lauderdale are level on 58.
Good for families. Austin 55, Fort Lauderdale 66: Fort Lauderdale leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Austin 30, Fort Lauderdale 32: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Austin 45, Fort Lauderdale 52: Fort Lauderdale leads by 7 points.
Affordability. Austin 33, Fort Lauderdale 32: Austin leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Austin 77, Fort Lauderdale 42: Austin leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Austin and Fort Lauderdale are level on 40.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Austin and Fort Lauderdale.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Austin
50match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Fort Lauderdale
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Austin in July

36 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
49 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
AustinFort Lauderdale

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Austin: 1991-2020 normals, Camp Mabry/Austin City Asos (3.7 km from centre). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAustinFort Lauderdale
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation149 m11 m
Main airportAustin Bergstrom International Airport (AUS)13 km from centre91 non-stop destinationsFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureAustinFort Lauderdale
City population961,855182,760
People per km²1,2171,829
Museums within 10 km216
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 Austin or Fort Lauderdale 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.