VacationSelector
Titanic Belfast, Belfast
BelfastTitanic Belfast
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park

Photos: Belfast by Nico Kaiser, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Belfast or Chicago?

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 Belfast for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Chicago for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Chicago’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. Belfast 20, Chicago 50: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Belfast 50, Chicago 80: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Belfast 55, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Belfast 50, Chicago 77: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Belfast 74, Chicago 48: Belfast leads by 26 points.
Day trips. Belfast 66, Chicago 42: Belfast leads by 24 points.
Good for families. Belfast 58, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Belfast 62, Chicago 72: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Belfast 45, Chicago 70: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Belfast 48, Chicago 33: Belfast leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Belfast 55, Chicago 82: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Belfast 25, Chicago 33: Chicago leads by 8 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Belfast
51match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches 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.

Belfast in July

19 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
74 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BelfastChicago

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Belfast: 1991-2020 normals, Belfast / Aldergrove Airport (19.4 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBelfastChicago
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation3 m179 m
Main airportGeorge Best Belfast City Airport (BHD)4 km from centre25 non-stop destinationsChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year10 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBelfastChicago
City population345,0062,746,388
People per km²3,0004,529
Museums within 10 km844
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Belfast or Chicago 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.