VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre, Fort Myers
Fort MyersThe 1933 courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, now an arts centre

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Fort Myers by Ebyabe, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Fort Myers?

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

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

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

Choose Fort Myers for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Fort Myers’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, Fort Myers 77: Fort Myers leads by 27 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Fort Myers 40: Chicago leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Fort Myers 32: Chicago leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Fort Myers 32: Chicago leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Fort Myers 63: Fort Myers leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Fort Myers 50: Fort Myers leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Fort Myers 62: Chicago leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Fort Myers 15: Chicago leads by 57 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Fort Myers 38: Chicago leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Fort Myers 38: Fort Myers leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Fort Myers 36: Chicago leads by 46 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Fort Myers 35: Fort Myers leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Fort Myers.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

Fort Myers
43match

Wins on beaches and 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.

Chicago in July

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

Fort Myers in July

33 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
220 mmrain in the month
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoFort Myers

Where the figures come from

Fort Myers 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). Fort Myers: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Myers / Page Park (4.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoFort Myers
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m3 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsSouthwest Florida International Airport (RSW)12 km from centre79 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoFort Myers
City population2,746,38886,395
People per km²4,529681
Museums within 10 km443
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month10 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Fort Myers 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.