VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
La Paz

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License.

Chicago or La Paz?

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
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose La Paz for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on La Paz’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, La Paz 3: Chicago leads by 47 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, La Paz 50: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, La Paz 52: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, La Paz 38: Chicago leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, La Paz 82: La Paz leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, La Paz 40: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, La Paz 10: Chicago leads by 68 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, La Paz 45: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, La Paz 45: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, La Paz 92: La Paz leads by 59 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, La Paz 35: Chicago leads by 47 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, La Paz 12: Chicago leads by 21 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and La Paz.

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.

La Paz
42match

Wins on prices and nature and the outdoors 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

La Paz in July

13 °Cdaytime high
-2 °Cnight-time low
16 mmrain in the month
No seasea
11 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoLa Paz

Where the figures come from

La Paz has no weather station within reach, so its figures come from a gridded climate model rather than a measured record, and read a broad area rather than the city itself.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). La Paz: 2001-2020 normals, NASA POWER reanalysis grid, no weather station within 90 km.

Before you go

MeasureChicagoLa Paz
Official language-Spanish, Aymara, Quechua, Guarani
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Boliviano (BOB)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAC50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-4
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m3,640 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsEl Alto International Airport (LPB)6 km from centre12 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoLa Paz
City population2,746,388755,732
People per km²4,5291,601
Museums within 10 km4421
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 La Paz 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. Temperature and rainfall for destinations with no weather station are from the NASA POWER 2001-2020 climatology, derived from MERRA-2. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.