Chicago or Las Vegas?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and museums & heritage with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Chicago leads by 53 points.53
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 10,000 km | 372 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Chicago leads by 19 points.19
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 62 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,147 | 915 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 24 |
Museums & heritage. Chicago leads by 27 points.27
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 19 |
| Museums within 10 km | 45 | 24 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 4 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 17 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Chicago leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,123 | 793 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 728 | 485 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 61 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 51 | 90 |
Nature & day trips. Las Vegas leads by 25 points.25
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 63 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 50 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 7 hectares |
Good for families. Chicago leads by 21 points.21
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 34 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 18 | 19 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 7 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 4 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 19 points.19
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 217 | 75 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Chicago and Las Vegas are level on 43.
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Las Vegas leads by 15 points.15
| Chicago | Las Vegas | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 72 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C | 13.9 °C to 40.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 121 mm | 1 mm to 21 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 12 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Chicago | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 4 h 0 m €195-265 1 stop ORD · 25 km | 1 h 5 m €76-164 LAS · 4 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km | 4 h 55 m €242-269 LAS · 4 km |
| MinneapolisMSP, STP | 1 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 3 h 5 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 50 m €141-200 ORD · 25 km | 4 h 0 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| San DiegoSAN, CLD | 3 h 55 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 10 m €90-110 LAS · 4 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 10 m €187-223 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 40 m €154-209 LAS · 4 km |
| Salt Lake CitySLC | 3 h 0 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 20 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 3 h 50 m €253 ORD · 25 km | 3 h 30 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 8 h 30 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 10 h 55 m no fares LAS · 4 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 13 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 12 h 0 m no fares LAS · 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 2026-08 to 2026-10, 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
| Measure | Chicago | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 179 m | 610 m |
| Main airport | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations | Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Chicago | Las Vegas |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,746,388 | 641,903 |
| People per km² | 4,529 | 1,843 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 21 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 87 | 49 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Las Vegas somewhere new.