VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Chicago or Melbourne?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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 and Melbourne are level on 50.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Melbourne 75: Chicago leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Melbourne 57: Chicago leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Melbourne 75: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Melbourne 70: Melbourne leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Melbourne 62: Melbourne leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Melbourne 73: Chicago leads by 5 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago and Melbourne are level on 70.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Melbourne 31: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Melbourne 72: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Melbourne 54: Melbourne leads by 21 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Chicago
62match

Wins on culture and sights and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Melbourne
64match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness 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
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoMelbourne
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation179 m31 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoMelbourne
City population2,746,3885,350,705
People per km²4,529535
Museums within 10 km4443
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 monthNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Melbourne 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.