VacationSelector
White sand and parasols on the beach, Destin
DestinWhite sand and parasols on the beach
Palm Canyon Drive, lined with tall palms, Palm Springs
Palm SpringsPalm Canyon Drive, lined with tall palms

Photos: Destin by #KenFL74, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Palm Springs by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Destin or Palm Springs?

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 Destin for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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. Destin 86, Palm Springs 7: Destin leads by 79 points.
Food & drink. Destin 42, Palm Springs 40: Destin leads by 2 points.
Culture & sights. Destin 14, Palm Springs 42: Palm Springs leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. Destin and Palm Springs are level on 36.
Nature & outdoors. Destin 56, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Destin 44, Palm Springs 38: Destin leads by 6 points.
Good for families. Destin 72, Palm Springs 40: Destin leads by 32 points.
Getting around. Destin 20, Palm Springs 22: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Destin 40, Palm Springs 44: Palm Springs leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Destin 34, Palm Springs 32: Destin leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Destin 20, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Destin 33, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 47 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Destin and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Too close to call, 1 point apart

Destin
41match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Destin in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
DestinPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Destin 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.

Palm Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Destin: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Destin (0.8 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureDestinPalm Springs
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6, UTC-5 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation8 m146 m
Main airportDestin-Fort Walton Beach Airport (VPS)11 km from centre45 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureDestinPalm Springs
City population13,93144,575
People per km²636181
Museums within 10 km13
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C7 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Destin or Palm Springs 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.