VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong
Hong KongThe junk Duk Ling in Victoria Harbour

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Hong Kong by LN9267, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chicago or Hong Kong?

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 Hong Kong for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Hong Kong’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 Hong Kong are level on 50.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Hong Kong 90: Hong Kong leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Hong Kong 60: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Hong Kong 68: Chicago leads by 9 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Hong Kong 80: Hong Kong leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Hong Kong 68: Hong Kong leads by 26 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Hong Kong 75: Chicago leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Hong Kong 97: Hong Kong leads by 25 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Hong Kong 88: Hong Kong leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Hong Kong 27: Chicago leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Hong Kong 55: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Hong Kong 42: Hong Kong leads by 9 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Hong Kong.

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.

Hong Kong
Best match
67match

Wins on nature and the outdoors 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

Hong Kong in July

31 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
381 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400500JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoHong Kong

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Hong Kong: 1991-2020 normals, King's Park (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoHong Kong
Official language-Standard Chinese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Hong Kong Dollar (HKD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911999
Elevation179 m7 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsHong Kong International Airport (HKG)25 km from centre148 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days17 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoHong Kong
City population2,746,3887,413,070
People per km²4,529-
Museums within 10 km4439
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Hong Kong 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.