VacationSelector
The Anshun Bridge over the Jin River, Chengdu
ChengduThe Anshun Bridge over the Jin River
A canoe on the turquoise lake below the mountains, Lake Louise
Lake LouiseA canoe on the turquoise lake below the mountains

Photos: Chengdu by TurnOnTheNight, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Lake Louise by Andrew Patrick Photo, Pexels License.

Chengdu or Lake Louise?

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 Chengdu for

  • prices
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Lake Louise for

  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Lake Louise’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. Chengdu and Lake Louise are level on 5.
Food & drink. Chengdu 86, Lake Louise 20: Chengdu leads by 66 points.
Culture & sights. Chengdu 60, Lake Louise 7: Chengdu leads by 53 points.
Nightlife. Chengdu 68, Lake Louise 4: Chengdu leads by 64 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chengdu 68, Lake Louise 97: Lake Louise leads by 29 points.
Day trips. Chengdu 80, Lake Louise 33: Chengdu leads by 47 points.
Good for families. Chengdu 65, Lake Louise 40: Chengdu leads by 25 points.
Getting around. Chengdu 74, Lake Louise 28: Chengdu leads by 46 points.
Shopping & style. Chengdu 64, Lake Louise 6: Chengdu leads by 58 points.
Affordability. Chengdu 80, Lake Louise 9: Chengdu leads by 71 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chengdu 50, Lake Louise 3: Chengdu leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chengdu 58, Lake Louise 42: Chengdu leads by 16 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chengdu and Lake Louise.

Your match

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

Chengdu
Best match
63match

Wins on prices and food and drink with your weighting.

Lake Louise
25match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chengdu in July

31 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
177 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Lake Louise in July

20 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
63 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChengduLake Louise

Where the figures come from

Lake Louise 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. Chengdu: 1991-2020 normals, Chengdu (4.5 km from centre). Lake Louise: 1991-2020 normals, Yoho Park (11.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChengduLake Louise
Official languagePutonghuaFrench, English
CurrencyYuan Renminbi (CNY)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsACI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 110, ambulance 120, fire 119911
Elevation500 m1,600 m
Main airportChengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU)16 km from centre77 non-stop destinationsCalgary International Airport (YYC)155 km from centre102 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year6 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChengduLake Louise
City population20,937,757-
People per km²1,456-
Museums within 10 km100
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chengdu or Lake Louise 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). 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.