VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji, Fukuoka
FukuokaThe red five-storey pagoda of Tocho-ji

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Fukuoka by Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chicago or Fukuoka?

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

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

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

Choose Fukuoka for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Fukuoka’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 and Fukuoka are level on 50.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Fukuoka 50: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Fukuoka 60: Chicago leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Fukuoka 62: Fukuoka leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Fukuoka 84: Fukuoka leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Chicago and Fukuoka are level on 78.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Fukuoka 82: Fukuoka leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Fukuoka 65: Chicago leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Fukuoka 58: Fukuoka leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Fukuoka 45: Chicago leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Fukuoka 60: Fukuoka leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Fukuoka.

Your match

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

Chicago
62match

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

Fukuoka
Best match
65match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Fukuoka in July

31 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
301 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoFukuoka

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Fukuoka: 1991-2020 normals, Fukuoka (1.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoFukuoka
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation179 m8 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsFukuoka Airport (FUK)5 km from centre46 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoFukuoka
City population2,746,3881,603,043
People per km²4,5294,715
Museums within 10 km4423
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

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