VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
Palm Springs

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License.

Bath or Palm Springs?

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 Bath for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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. Bath 10, Palm Springs 7: Bath leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Palm Springs 40: Bath leads by 4 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Palm Springs 42: Bath leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Palm Springs 36: Palm Springs leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Palm Springs 38: Bath leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Palm Springs 40: Bath leads by 10 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Palm Springs 22: Bath leads by 50 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Palm Springs 44: Bath leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Palm Springs 32: Palm Springs leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Palm Springs 40: Bath leads by 4 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Bath
Best match
51match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Bath in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
BathPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Bath's temperatures are measured 29 km from the centre, at Lyneham.

Bath 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.

Palm Springs 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. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathPalm Springs
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation132 m146 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathPalm Springs
City population94,09244,575
People per km²3,245181
Museums within 10 km173
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Palm Springs 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). 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.