VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima, Hiroshima
HiroshimaThe floating torii of Itsukushima at Miyajima

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Hiroshima by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Chicago or Hiroshima?

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
  • nightlife
  • beaches

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

Choose Hiroshima for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Hiroshima’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, Hiroshima 30: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Hiroshima 66: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Hiroshima 60: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Hiroshima 45: Chicago leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Hiroshima 62: Hiroshima leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Hiroshima 80: Hiroshima leads by 38 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Hiroshima 60: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Hiroshima 74: Hiroshima leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Hiroshima 52: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Hiroshima 58: Hiroshima leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Hiroshima 38: Chicago leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Hiroshima 50: Hiroshima leads by 17 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Hiroshima.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Hiroshima
56match

Wins on day trips and prices 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

Hiroshima in July

31 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
299 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoHiroshima

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Hiroshima: 1991-2020 normals, Hiroshima (1.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoHiroshima
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 m3 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsHiroshima Airport (HIJ)43 km from centre10 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoHiroshima
City population2,746,3881,198,021
People per km²4,5291,324
Museums within 10 km4418
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 Hiroshima 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. 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.