Chicago or Lyon?
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 sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on value for money and museums & heritage 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 | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 26 |
| Coast distance | 10,000 km | 253 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Chicago leads by 2 points.2
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 79 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,147 | 1,691 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 40 |
Museums & heritage. Lyon leads by 9 points.9
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 55 |
| Museums within 10 km | 45 | 53 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 25 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 47 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
Nightlife. Chicago leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 58 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,123 | 866 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 728 | 611 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 51 | 47 |
Nature & day trips. Chicago leads by 5 points.5
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 33 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 6 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 120 hectares |
Good for families. Lyon leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 59 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 18 | 25 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 120 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 2 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 16 points.16
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 217 | 86 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Lyon leads by 19 points.19
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 62 |
| Price level global | 100 | 73.7 |
| Daily budget | — | €160 |
Year-round weather. Lyon leads by 7 points.7
| Chicago | Lyon | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 64 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C | 7 °C to 28 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 121 mm | 43 mm to 101 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
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). Lyon: 1991-2020 normals, Lyon / Bron (10.6 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Chicago | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 8 h 30 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 10 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 8 h 10 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 35 m no fares LYS · 20 km |
| IstanbulIST, SAW | 11 h 0 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 3 h 0 m €167-217 LYS · 20 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km | 8 h 0 m no fares GVA · 111 km |
| MontrealYUL, YHU, YMX | 2 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 7 h 35 m €446-565 1 stop LYS · 20 km |
| LisbonLIS | 8 h 15 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 2 h 20 m €109-165 LYS · 20 km |
| FrankfurtFRA, HHN | 8 h 50 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 20 m €195-211 2 stops LYS · 20 km |
| BarcelonaBCN | 9 h 0 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 20 m €70-92 LYS · 20 km |
| RomeFCO, CIA | 9 h 45 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 1 h 30 m €79-99 LYS · 20 km |
| Abu DhabiAUH | 14 h 25 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 6 h 30 m no fares GVA · 111 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 | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | French |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Euro (EUR) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | CE230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC+1, UTC+2 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 112 |
| Elevation | 179 m | 160 m |
| Main airport | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations | Lyon Saint-Exupéry Airport (LYS)20 km from centre139 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Chicago | Lyon |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,746,388 | 519,127 |
| People per km² | 4,529 | 10,838 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 42 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 87 | 148 |
| 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 Lyon somewhere new.