VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Castle Square and the Royal Castle, Warsaw
WarsawCastle Square and the Royal Castle

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Warsaw by Raymond Petrik, Pexels License.

Chicago or Warsaw?

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

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose Warsaw for

  • prices
  • day trips
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Warsaw’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, Warsaw 12: Chicago leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Warsaw 60: Chicago leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Warsaw 70: Chicago leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Warsaw 66: Chicago leads by 11 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Warsaw 47: Chicago leads by 1 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Warsaw 52: Warsaw leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Warsaw 62: Chicago leads by 16 points.
Getting around. Chicago and Warsaw are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Warsaw 55: Chicago leads by 15 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Warsaw 64: Warsaw leads by 31 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Warsaw 63: Chicago leads by 19 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Warsaw 35: Warsaw leads by 2 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Chicago
Best match
62match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

Warsaw
55match

Wins on prices and day trips 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

Warsaw in July

25 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
83 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoWarsaw

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Warsaw: 1991-2020 normals, Warszawa-Okecie (7.7 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoWarsaw
Official language-Polish
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Zloty (PLN)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCE50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation179 m118 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsWarsaw Chopin Airport (WAW)8 km from centre172 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoWarsaw
City population2,746,3881,862,402
People per km²4,5293,601
Museums within 10 km44117
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °C1 month-

Where else could you go?

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