VacationSelector
The Massachusetts State House, Boston
BostonThe Massachusetts State House
St. Petersburg, Florida

Photos: Boston by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Boston or St. Petersburg, Florida?

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 Boston for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’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. Boston 35, St. Petersburg, Florida 85: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 50 points.
Food & drink. Boston 64, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: Boston leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Boston 72, St. Petersburg, Florida 52: Boston leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Boston 47, St. Petersburg, Florida 44: Boston leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Boston 60, St. Petersburg, Florida 58: Boston leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Boston 72, St. Petersburg, Florida 55: Boston leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Boston 72, St. Petersburg, Florida 70: Boston leads by 2 points.
Getting around. Boston 70, St. Petersburg, Florida 33: Boston leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Boston 55, St. Petersburg, Florida 38: Boston leads by 17 points.
Affordability. Boston 18, St. Petersburg, Florida 35: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. Boston 72, St. Petersburg, Florida 42: Boston leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Boston 30, St. Petersburg, Florida 40: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Boston and St. Petersburg, Florida.

Your match

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

Boston
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Boston in July

28 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
82 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
BostonSt. Petersburg, Florida

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Boston: 1991-2020 normals, Boston Logan International (3.5 km from centre). St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBostonSt. Petersburg, Florida
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation43 m134 m
Main airportBoston Logan International Airport (BOS)4 km from centre144 non-stop destinationsSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureBostonSt. Petersburg, Florida
City population675,647258,308
People per km²2,910725
Museums within 10 km5113
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Boston or St. Petersburg, Florida 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.