Boston or Las Vegas?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on year-round weather and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Boston leads by 60 points.60
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 68 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 372 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Boston leads by 11 points.11
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 62 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,452 | 915 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 24 |
Museums & heritage. Boston leads by 24 points.24
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 19 |
| Museums within 10 km | 79 | 24 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 4 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 34 | 17 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Boston and Las Vegas are level on 58.
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 886 | 793 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 513 | 485 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 58 | 61 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 90 |
Nature & day trips. Las Vegas leads by 10 points.10
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 63 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 50 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 77 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 7 hectares |
Good for families. Boston leads by 19 points.19
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 34 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 19 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 7 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Boston leads by 7 points.7
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 111 | 75 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Boston and Las Vegas are level on 43.
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Las Vegas leads by 16 points.16
| Boston | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 72 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.9 °C to 28 °C | 13.9 °C to 40.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 79 mm to 107 mm | 1 mm to 21 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 12 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Boston | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 35 m €289-344 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 1 h 5 m €76-164 LAS · 4 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 1 h 0 m €192-203 BOS · 4 km | 4 h 55 m €242-269 LAS · 4 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 20 m €176-196 BOS · 4 km | 3 h 30 m €171-225 LAS · 4 km |
| San DiegoSAN, CLD | 5 h 35 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 1 h 10 m €90-110 LAS · 4 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 25 m €175-234 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 4 h 35 m €230-263 1 stop LAS · 4 km |
| OrlandoMCO, SFB, ORL | 2 h 45 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 4 h 30 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 30 m €211-283 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 4 h 20 m €261-438 1 stop LAS · 4 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 50 m €536-548 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 10 h 35 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 5 h 0 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 3 h 30 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 13 h 35 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 12 h 0 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Boston | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 43 m | 610 m |
| Main airport | Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinations | Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Boston | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 675,647 | 641,903 |
| People per km² | 2,910 | 1,843 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 74 | 49 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | None | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston or Las Vegas somewhere new.