Boston or Philadelphia?
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 nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on museums & heritage and places to eat with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Boston if you want the coast within reach, plus more parkland and attractions close to the centre and a tighter walkable core.
Choose Philadelphia if museums and heritage matter more, with a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach, and if you prefer warmer weather and a slightly wider choice of restaurants near the centre.
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 | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 68 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 13 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Philadelphia leads by 4 points.4
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 73 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,452 | 1,714 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 32 | 35 |
Museums & heritage. Philadelphia leads by 17 points.17
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 79 | 89 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 27 | 48 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 34 | 54 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
Nightlife. Philadelphia leads by 1 points.1
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 59 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 886 | 930 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 513 | 575 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 58 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 43 | 41 |
Nature & day trips. Boston leads by 4 points.4
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 49 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 12 | 14 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 77 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 75 hectares |
Good for families. Boston and Philadelphia are level on 53.
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 28 | 16 |
| Park area within 2 km | 116 hectares | 75 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Boston leads by 4 points.4
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 111 | 88 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Boston and Philadelphia are level on 43.
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Philadelphia leads by 4 points.4
| Boston | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 56 | 60 |
| Monthly daytime high | 2.9 °C to 28 °C | 5.2 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 79 mm to 107 mm | 69 mm to 112 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Boston is the one with a coast: 68 beaches within reach against Philadelphia's single one, though neither city has a month with sea at 21°C or more. It also has about twice as much park space near the centre, and more notable places within walking distance of it.
Philadelphia's heritage is the stronger draw: a similar number of museums, but grouped more tightly around the centre, plus 1 UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach. It also runs warmer through the year, 5-31°C against Boston's 3-28°C.
Where they are alike
For families the two come out level by different means: Boston has about twice as many attractions and as much park space near the centre, while Philadelphia has 4 theme parks within reach.
Nights out are similar: comparable numbers of bars and clubs, though most of Philadelphia's sit near the centre against about half of Boston's. Eating out and walkable central sights are close too, as is countryside access, 14% of land protected around Philadelphia against 12% around Boston.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone drawn to the water should pick Boston: 68 beaches nearby against Philadelphia's one. Expect coastal walks more than swimming, since the sea peaks at 19°C and never gets warmer than that.
A museum-minded traveller is better served in Philadelphia, where a comparable set of museums sits more tightly around the centre and a UNESCO-listed place lies within day-trip reach, making car-free days simpler.
Families can go either way. Boston offers roughly twice the attractions and park space near the centre; Philadelphia counters with 4 theme parks within reach, so choose by whether your children prefer rides or open ground.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily budget for either city, and the value figure behind both is a national price level, identical by construction, so it tells you nothing about which trip costs more.
Boston's beach count is the widest gap between the two, but 68 beaches do not make a swimming holiday: the sea peaks at 19°C and never reaches 21°C. Rain is steady rather than seasonal as well, with no month at 40mm or less in either city, so a warm month is not a dry one.
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). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).
Boston is at its best in July and August, when highs reach 27-28°C, the sea is at its warmest at 19°C, and rainfall stays near 80-82mm, less than Philadelphia gets over the same weeks.
Philadelphia suits May and June, with highs of 24-28°C. Mid-summer is hotter but opens the wettest stretch of the year, 109-112mm from July to September, so late spring, or September if you accept the rain, is the safer choice.
Getting there
| Flying from | Boston | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 20 m €176-196 BOS · 4 km | 1 h 55 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| OrlandoMCO, SFB, ORL | 2 h 45 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 2 h 20 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| DenverDEN, APA | 4 h 0 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 3 h 35 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| TampaTPA, PIE | 2 h 55 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 2 h 25 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| NashvilleBNA | 2 h 25 m €267-290 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 1 h 55 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 30 m €211-283 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 1 h 20 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 6 h 50 m €536-548 1 stop BOS · 4 km | 7 h 20 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| San JuanSJU, SIG | 3 h 50 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 3 h 40 m €120-131 PHL · 11 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 25 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 140 km |
| DohaDOH | 13 h 0 m no fares BOS · 4 km | 13 h 30 m no fares PHL · 11 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 2026-09 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 | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| 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-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 43 m | 12 m |
| Main airport | Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinations | Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre128 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 12 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Boston | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 675,647 | 1,603,797 |
| People per km² | 2,910 | 4,339 |
| Museums within 10 km | 51 | 54 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 74 | 75 |
| 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 Philadelphia somewhere new.