VacationSelector
Cloud Gate in Millennium Park, Chicago
ChicagoCloud Gate in Millennium Park
Minato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock, Yokohama
YokohamaMinato Mirai and the Cosmo Clock

Photos: Chicago by Jesus Toledo, Pexels License; Yokohama by Yoshio Kohara, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Chicago or Yokohama?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Yokohama for

  • day trips
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Yokohama’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, Yokohama 46: Chicago leads by 4 points.
Food & drink. Chicago 80, Yokohama 72: Chicago leads by 8 points.
Culture & sights. Chicago 78, Yokohama 55: Chicago leads by 23 points.
Nightlife. Chicago 77, Yokohama 44: Chicago leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Chicago 48, Yokohama 66: Yokohama leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Chicago 42, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 44 points.
Good for families. Chicago 78, Yokohama 86: Yokohama leads by 8 points.
Getting around. Chicago 72, Yokohama 87: Yokohama leads by 15 points.
Shopping & style. Chicago 70, Yokohama 60: Chicago leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Chicago 33, Yokohama 55: Yokohama leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Chicago 82, Yokohama 56: Chicago leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Chicago 33, Yokohama 60: Yokohama leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Chicago and Yokohama.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Chicago
62match

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

Yokohama
64match

Wins on day trips and wellness 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

Yokohama in July

28 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
5 hsunshine a day
24 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
ChicagoYokohama

Where the figures come from

Yokohama's sunshine is measured 29 km from the centre, at Tokyo.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Yokohama: 1971-2000 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Yokohama (1.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureChicagoYokohama
Official language-Japanese
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yen (JPY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB100 V, 50 and 60 Hz depending on the region
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC+9
Emergency number911Police 110, fire 119
Elevation179 m24 m
Main airportChicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre274 non-stop destinationsTokyo Haneda International Airport (HND)18 km from centre98 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days16 days

By the numbers

MeasureChicagoYokohama
City population2,746,3883,757,630
People per km²4,5298,585
Museums within 10 km4438
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 Yokohama 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.