VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
A galleon on the Motława below the old crane, Gdansk
GdanskA galleon on the Motława below the old crane

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Gdansk by Nikater, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Gdansk?

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

  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Gdansk for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Gdansk’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, Gdansk 40: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Gdansk 50: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Gdansk 68: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Gdansk 52: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Gdansk 58: Gdansk leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Gdansk 62: Gdansk leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Gdansk 62: Chicago leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Chicago and Gdansk are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Gdansk 42: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Gdansk 68: Gdansk leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Gdansk 52: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Gdansk 36: Gdansk leads by 3 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on food and drink and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Gdansk
55match

Wins on prices 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
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Gdansk in July

22 °Cdaytime high
13 °Cnight-time low
85 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoGdansk

Where the figures come from

Gdansk 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.

Gdansk's sunshine is measured 55 km from the centre, at Elblag.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Gdansk: 1991-2020 normals, Gdansk-Rebiechowo (12.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoGdansk
Official language-Polish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m11 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsGdańsk Lech Wałęsa Airport (GDN)13 km from centre72 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoGdansk
City population2,746,388487,834
People per km²4,529714
Museums within 10 km4434
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Gdansk 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.