VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Korenlei reflected in the Leie, Ghent
GhentKorenlei reflected in the Leie

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

Chicago or Ghent?

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

  • families
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose Ghent for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Ghent’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, Ghent 25: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Ghent 62: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Ghent 72: Chicago leads by 6 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Ghent 55: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Ghent 35: Chicago leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Ghent 88: Ghent leads by 46 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Ghent 50: Chicago leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Ghent 78: Ghent leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Ghent 50: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Ghent 38: Ghent leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Ghent 60: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago and Ghent are level on 33.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on families and beaches with your weighting.

Ghent
54match

Wins on day trips and getting around 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

Ghent in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoGhent

Where the figures come from

Ghent 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.

Ghent's sunshine is measured 45 km from the centre, at Vlissingen.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Ghent: 2009-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Melle / Kalverhaag (10.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoGhent
Official language-French, German, Dutch
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m12 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsBrussels Airport (BRU)56 km from centre191 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoGhent
City population2,746,388272,657
People per km²4,5291,728
Museums within 10 km4430
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Ghent 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. 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.