VacationSelector

Chicago or Kathmandu?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
Chicago

Photo: Jesus Toledo, Pexels License

Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
Kathmandu

Photo: Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

Your match

Chicago
✓ Best match
62
match

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

Kathmandu
48
match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

ChicagoKathmandu
Beaches & swimming. Chicago leads by 46 points.46
Food & drink. Chicago leads by 25 points.25
Culture & sights. Kathmandu leads by 4 points.4
Nightlife. Chicago leads by 41 points.41
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu leads by 22 points.22
Day trips. Kathmandu leads by 14 points.14
Good for families. Chicago leads by 58 points.58
Getting around. Chicago leads by 47 points.47
Shopping & style. Chicago leads by 15 points.15
Affordability. Kathmandu leads by 64 points.64
Live music & performing arts. Chicago leads by 54 points.54
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu leads by 12 points.12
0255075100

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

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyChicagoKathmandu
Daytime high29 °C29 °C
Night-time low20 °C20 °C
Rainfall in the month102 mm384 mm
SunshineNo figure4 hours a day
Sea temperature21 °CNo sea
Daylight15 hours a day14 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Chicago
0
3
9
15
22
27
29
28
25
17
10
3
Kathmandu
19
22
26
29
29
29
29
29
28
27
23
20
Sea temperature, °C
Chicago
3
2
2
4
7
14
21
23
20
15
9
6
Kathmandu
No coastline within reach
Rainfall, mm
Chicago
58
54
68
105
121
115
102
104
85
98
69
59
Kathmandu
16
23
37
57
113
260
384
317
211
48
7
10
Daylight, hours per day
Chicago
10
11
12
13
15
15
15
14
13
11
10
9
Kathmandu
11
11
12
13
14
14
14
13
12
12
11
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Chicago
No sunshine record
Kathmandu
6
6
7
7
7
5
4
4
5
7
7
7

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromChicagoKathmandu
New DelhiDEL
14 h 50 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
1 h 40 m
€175-205
KTM · 4 km
DubaiDXB, DWC
14 h 20 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
4 h 10 m
€400-446
KTM · 4 km
DohaDOH
14 h 10 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
4 h 35 m
€459-552
KTM · 4 km
TokyoHND, NRT
12 h 35 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
6 h 45 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Hong KongHKG
15 h 25 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
4 h 5 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km
Abu DhabiAUH
14 h 25 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
4 h 15 m
€415-478
KTM · 4 km
IstanbulIST, SAW
11 h 0 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
6 h 55 m
€583-665
1 stop
KTM · 4 km
SeoulICN, GMP
13 h 5 m
no fares
ORD · 25 km
5 h 20 m
no fares
KTM · 4 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-10 to 2026-12, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureChicagoKathmandu
Official language-Nepali
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Nepalese Rupee (NPR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCM230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+5:45
Emergency number911Police 100, ambulance 102, fire 101
Elevation179 m1,300 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days-

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoKathmandu
City population2,746,388845,767
People per km²4,52917,121
Museums within 10 km439
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

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

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. 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. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.