VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Palacio Salvo under a blue sky, Montevideo
MontevideoPalacio Salvo under a blue sky

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Montevideo by Andrés Franchi Ugart…, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Montevideo?

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

  • shopping
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Montevideo for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Montevideo’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, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Montevideo 57: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Montevideo 54: Chicago leads by 24 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Montevideo 50: Chicago leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Montevideo 34: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Montevideo 55: Montevideo leads by 13 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Montevideo 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Montevideo 54: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Montevideo 36: Chicago leads by 34 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Montevideo 42: Montevideo leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Montevideo 57: Chicago leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Montevideo 38: Montevideo leads by 5 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on shopping and nightlife with your weighting.

Montevideo
49match

Wins on day trips and prices 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

Montevideo in July

15 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
99 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoMontevideo

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Montevideo: 1991-2020 normals, Carrasco (19.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoMontevideo
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Peso Uruguayo (UYU)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFIL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-3
Emergency number911911
Elevation179 m41 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsCarrasco General Cesáreo L. Berisso International Airport (MVD)17 km from centre15 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days15 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoMontevideo
City population2,746,3881,302,954
People per km²4,5291,785
Museums within 10 km4436
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month4 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Montevideo 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.