VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Skiers at the foot of the slopes in the village, Copper Mountain
Copper MountainSkiers at the foot of the slopes in the village

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Copper Mountain by SparkFunElectronics, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Chicago or Copper Mountain?

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 Chicago for

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

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

Choose Copper Mountain for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Copper Mountain’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. Chicago 50, Copper Mountain 3: Chicago leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Copper Mountain 20: Chicago leads by 60 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Copper Mountain 4: Chicago leads by 74 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Copper Mountain 12: Chicago leads by 65 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Copper Mountain 90: Copper Mountain leads by 42 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Copper Mountain 55: Copper Mountain leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Copper Mountain 62: Chicago leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Copper Mountain 48: Chicago leads by 24 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Copper Mountain 8: Chicago leads by 62 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Copper Mountain 18: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Copper Mountain 8: Chicago leads by 74 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Copper Mountain 28: Chicago leads by 5 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Copper Mountain.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

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

Copper Mountain
30match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Chicago in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
102 mmrain in the month
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Copper Mountain in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
41 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoCopper Mountain

Where the figures come from

Copper Mountain's temperatures are measured 35 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Copper Mountain 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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Copper Mountain: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (35.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoCopper Mountain
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m2,955 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)132 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoCopper Mountain
City population2,746,388650
People per km²4,5298
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Copper Mountain 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. Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national sources. 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.