VacationSelector
The Sagrada Família, Barcelona
BarcelonaThe Sagrada Família
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: Barcelona by Canaan, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Barcelona or Los Angeles?

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 Barcelona for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • wellness
  • live music and the arts
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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. Barcelona 75, Los Angeles 60: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Barcelona 82, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Barcelona 86, Los Angeles 66: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Barcelona 82, Los Angeles 67: Barcelona leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Barcelona 72, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Barcelona 80, Los Angeles 60: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Barcelona 76, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Barcelona 80, Los Angeles 25: Barcelona leads by 55 points.
Shopping & style. Barcelona 75, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Barcelona 44, Los Angeles 24: Barcelona leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Barcelona 70, Los Angeles 83: Los Angeles leads by 13 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Barcelona 38, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Barcelona and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

Barcelona
Best match
72match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Los Angeles
64match

Wins on wellness 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.

Barcelona in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BarcelonaLos Angeles

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Barcelona: 1991-2020 normals, Barcelona / Aeropuerto (14.4 km from centre). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBarcelonaLos Angeles
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation9 m106 m
Main airportJosep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport (BCN)13 km from centre235 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year14 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBarcelonaLos Angeles
City population1,731,6493,898,747
People per km²17,0942,994
Museums within 10 km9539
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Barcelona or Los Angeles 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.