VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Sorrento?

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
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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, Sorrento 60: Sorrento leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Sorrento 60: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Sorrento 32: Chicago leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Sorrento 28: Chicago leads by 49 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Sorrento 80: Sorrento leads by 32 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 53 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Sorrento 42: Chicago leads by 36 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Sorrento 58: Chicago leads by 14 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Sorrento 38: Chicago leads by 32 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Sorrento 32: Chicago leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Sorrento 20: Chicago leads by 62 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Sorrento 48: Sorrento leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Sorrento.

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Sorrento
49match

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoSorrento
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m50 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoSorrento
City population2,746,38815,407
People per km²4,5291,541
Museums within 10 km446
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
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 Sorrento 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.