Chicago or West Palm Beach?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on sights concentration and places to eat with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. West Palm Beach leads by 35 points.35
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 88 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 10,000 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Chicago leads by 44 points.44
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 37 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,147 | 262 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 14 |
Museums & heritage. Chicago leads by 29 points.29
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 17 |
| Museums within 10 km | 45 | 5 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 3 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
Nightlife. Chicago leads by 42 points.42
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 20 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,123 | 132 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 728 | 90 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 68 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 51 | 10 |
Nature & day trips. West Palm Beach leads by 31 points.31
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 69 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 34 hectares |
Good for families. Chicago leads by 34 points.34
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 21 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 18 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 34 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 1 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 58 points.58
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 12 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 217 | 8 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Chicago and West Palm Beach are level on 43.
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. West Palm Beach leads by 18 points.18
| Chicago | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C | 24 °C to 32.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 121 mm | 67 mm to 217 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Chicago | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 35 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 50 m €141-200 ORD · 25 km | 1 h 40 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 1 h 45 m €109-226 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 20 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| MinneapolisMSP, STP | 1 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 3 h 25 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 30 m €189-423 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 2 h 20 m €220-252 ORD · 25 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 4 h 0 m €195-265 1 stop ORD · 25 km | 5 h 5 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| MadridMAD | 8 h 35 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 105 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 3 h 50 m €253 ORD · 25 km | 3 h 5 m €278-290 MIA · 105 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 14 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 105 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Chicago | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 179 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations | President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre37 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Chicago | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,746,388 | 117,415 |
| People per km² | 4,529 | 786 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 4 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 87 | 18 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or West Palm Beach somewhere new.