Chicago or Fort Lauderdale?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Fort Lauderdale leads by 31 points.31
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 84 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 7 |
| Coast distance | 10,000 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Chicago leads by 36 points.36
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 45 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,147 | 371 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 18 |
Museums & heritage. Chicago leads by 26 points.26
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 20 |
| Museums within 10 km | 45 | 14 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 6 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 43 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Chicago leads by 28 points.28
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 34 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,123 | 259 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 728 | 144 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 51 | 18 |
Nature & day trips. Fort Lauderdale leads by 43 points.43
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 81 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 20 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 51 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 45 hectares |
Good for families. Chicago leads by 36 points.36
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 19 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 18 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 45 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 70 points.70
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 0 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 217 | 2 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Chicago and Fort Lauderdale are level on 43.
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Fort Lauderdale leads by 19 points.19
| Chicago | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 76 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C | 24.2 °C to 32.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 121 mm | 55 mm to 219 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
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. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Chicago | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 40 m €140-271 1 stop FLL · 7 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 30 m €189-423 ORD · 25 km | 3 h 0 m €167-168 FLL · 7 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 50 m €141-200 ORD · 25 km | 1 h 45 m €93-112 FLL · 7 km |
| DetroitDTW, DET, YIP | 1 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 2 h 50 m €174-269 FLL · 7 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 45 m €109-226 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 25 m €164-177 FLL · 7 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 2 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 3 h 15 m no fares FLL · 7 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 10 m €187-223 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 45 m €133-174 FLL · 7 km |
| NassauNAS | 3 h 10 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 8 h 35 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 41 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 14 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 41 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 2026-08 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 | Chicago | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 179 m | 11 m |
| Main airport | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations | Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre125 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Chicago | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,746,388 | 182,760 |
| People per km² | 4,529 | 1,829 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 6 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 87 | 25 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Fort Lauderdale somewhere new.