VacationSelector
The Old Port and Le Suquet, Cannes
CannesThe Old Port and Le Suquet
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Cannes by qwesy qwesy, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Cannes or Washington DC?

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 Cannes for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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. Cannes 80, Washington DC 12: Cannes leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Cannes 55, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 12 points.
Culture & sights. Cannes 38, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Cannes 42, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Cannes 72, Washington DC 64: Cannes leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Cannes 86, Washington DC 73: Cannes leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Cannes 56, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Cannes 68, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Cannes 60, Washington DC 52: Cannes leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Cannes 22, Washington DC 28: Washington DC leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Cannes 38, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Cannes 42, Washington DC 26: Cannes leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Cannes and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Cannes
55match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Cannes in July

29 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
CannesWashington DC

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Cannes: 2004-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Cannes (5.8 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureCannesWashington DC
Official languageFrench-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCE230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation0 m72 m
Main airportNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)20 km from centre130 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureCannesWashington DC
City population74,350689,545
People per km²3,7933,896
Museums within 10 km1698
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C4 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Cannes or Washington DC 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). 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. 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.