VacationSelector
Pulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon, Bath
BathPulteney Bridge and the weir on the Avon
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Bath by Lucas Carlini, Pexels License; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Bath or Washington DC?

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
  • day trips
  • shopping

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • nightlife
  • food and drink
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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, Washington DC 12: Washington DC leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Bath 44, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Bath 68, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Bath 30, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bath 58, Washington DC 64: Washington DC leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Bath 80, Washington DC 73: Bath leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Bath 50, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Bath and Washington DC are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Bath 54, Washington DC 52: Bath leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Bath 27, Washington DC 28: Washington DC leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bath 44, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bath 78, Washington DC 26: Bath leads by 52 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Bath
51match

Wins on wellness and day trips with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on nightlife and food and drink 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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BathWashington DC

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBathWashington DC
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 m72 m
Main airportBristol Airport (BRS)25 km from centre117 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBathWashington DC
City population94,092689,545
People per km²3,2453,896
Museums within 10 km1798
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bath or Washington DC 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.