VacationSelector
The island church from the lakeshore, Bled
BledThe island church from the lakeshore
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park

Photos: Bled by Philipp Schwarz, Pexels License; Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Bled 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 Bled for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • wellness

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

Choose Chicago for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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. Bled and Chicago are level on 50.
Food & drink. Bled 20, Chicago 80: Chicago leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Bled 22, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 56 points.
Nightlife. Bled 5, Chicago 77: Chicago leads by 72 points.
Nature & outdoors. Bled 86, Chicago 48: Bled leads by 38 points.
Day trips. Bled 70, Chicago 42: Bled leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Bled 60, Chicago 78: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Bled 58, Chicago 72: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Bled 5, Chicago 70: Chicago leads by 65 points.
Affordability. Bled 45, Chicago 33: Bled leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Bled 5, Chicago 82: Chicago leads by 77 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Bled 55, Chicago 33: Bled leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Bled and Chicago.

Your match

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

Bled
40match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Bled in July

27 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
154 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BledChicago

Where the figures come from

Bled's temperatures are measured 36 km from the centre, at Klagenfurt.

Bled 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. Bled: 1991-2020 normals, Klagenfurt (35.5 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBledChicago
Official languageSlovene-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation501 m179 m
Main airportLjubljana Jože Pučnik Airport (LJU)31 km from centre32 non-stop destinationsChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year21 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureBledChicago
City population4,9692,746,388
People per km²264,529
Museums within 10 km444
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km31
Swim season, months above 21 °C-1 month

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Bled 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.