VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Vieux Nice and the Baie des Anges, Nice
NiceVieux Nice and the Baie des Anges

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Nice by Daniel Stockman, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Chicago or Nice?

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

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • families

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

Choose Nice for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Nice’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, Nice 75: Nice leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Nice 66: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Nice 64: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Nice 47: Chicago leads by 30 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Nice 80: Nice leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Nice 87: Nice leads by 45 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Nice 57: Chicago leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Nice 74: Nice leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Nice 55: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Nice 35: Nice leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Nice 45: Chicago leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Nice 40: Nice leads by 7 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Nice.

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 live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Nice
60match

Wins on day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
21 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Nice in July

28 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoNice

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Nice: 1991-2020 normals, Nice (8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoNice
Official language-French
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m0 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsNice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE)6 km from centre130 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoNice
City population2,746,388357,737
People per km²4,5294,975
Museums within 10 km4417
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
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 Nice 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.