VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License.

Bath or Philadelphia?

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

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Philadelphia for

  • live music and the arts
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Philadelphia’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, Philadelphia 36: Philadelphia leads by 26 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Philadelphia 62: Philadelphia leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Philadelphia 55: Philadelphia leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Philadelphia 52: Bath leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Bath and Philadelphia are level on 80.
Good for families. Bath 50, Philadelphia 68: Philadelphia leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Bath 72, Philadelphia 66: Bath leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Philadelphia 57: Philadelphia leads by 3 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Philadelphia 40: Philadelphia leads by 13 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Philadelphia 72: Philadelphia leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Philadelphia 26: Bath leads by 52 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bath and Philadelphia.

Your match

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

Bath
51match

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

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on live music and the arts and beaches 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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathPhiladelphia

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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Bath: 1991-2020 normals, Lyneham (29.2 km from centre). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathPhiladelphia
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation132 m12 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathPhiladelphia
City population94,0921,603,797
People per km²3,2454,339
Museums within 10 km1754
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km21
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 Philadelphia 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.