VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Elizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth, Perth
PerthElizabeth Quay and the centre of Perth

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Perth by Samuel Wiki, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Chicago or Perth?

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
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Perth for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Perth’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, Perth 86: Perth leads by 36 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Perth 58: Chicago leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Perth 42: Chicago leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Perth 42: Chicago leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Perth 72: Perth leads by 24 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Perth 48: Perth leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Perth 74: Chicago leads by 4 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Perth 55: Chicago leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Perth 44: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Perth 28: Chicago leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Perth 50: Chicago leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Perth 38: Perth leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Perth.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Perth
53match

Wins on beaches 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

Perth in July

19 °Cdaytime high
8 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
20 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoPerth

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Perth: 1991-2020 normals, Perth (7.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoPerth
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+8
Emergency number911000
Elevation179 m2 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsPerth International Airport (PER)10 km from centre49 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoPerth
City population2,746,3882,141,834
People per km²4,529334
Museums within 10 km4415
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month5 months

Where else could you go?

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