VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance, Keystone
KeystoneThe Outback, with the Tenmile Range in the distance

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Keystone by Rudi Riet, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chicago or Keystone?

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

  • culture and sights
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Keystone for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Keystone’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, Keystone 5: Chicago leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Keystone 27: Chicago leads by 53 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Keystone 7: Chicago leads by 71 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Keystone 12: Chicago leads by 65 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Keystone 93: Keystone leads by 45 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Keystone 55: Keystone leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Keystone 66: Chicago leads by 12 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Keystone 50: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Keystone 22: Chicago leads by 48 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Keystone 12: Chicago leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Keystone 22: Chicago leads by 60 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Keystone 32: Chicago leads by 1 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Keystone
34match

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
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Keystone in July

21 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
39 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoKeystone

Where the figures come from

Keystone's temperatures are measured 51 km from the centre, at Leadville / Stringtown.

Keystone's station stands 232 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Keystone 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Keystone: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Leadville / Stringtown (50.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoKeystone
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m2,796 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsDenver International Airport (DEN)116 km from centre231 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoKeystone
City population2,746,3881,369
People per km²4,52913
Museums within 10 km440
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
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 Keystone 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.