VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0.

Chicago or Sydney?

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
  • prices

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

Choose Sydney for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Sydney’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, Sydney 95: Sydney leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Sydney 77: Chicago leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Sydney 60: Chicago leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Sydney 60: Chicago leads by 17 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Sydney 85: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Sydney 50: Sydney leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Sydney 75: Chicago leads by 3 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Sydney 75: Sydney leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Sydney 68: Chicago leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Sydney 22: Chicago leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Sydney 73: Chicago leads by 9 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Sydney 55: Sydney leads by 22 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
62match

Wins on culture and sights and nightlife with your weighting.

Sydney
Best match
66match

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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoSydney

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoSydney
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 m6 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoSydney
City population2,746,3885,450,496
People per km²4,529449
Museums within 10 km4438
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km12
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month6 months

Where else could you go?

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