Fort Lauderdale or Orlando?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and sights concentration with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Fort Lauderdale if you want the sea: 7 beaches nearby and water at 21°C or more every month of the year, plus more protected land around the city for days out.
Choose Orlando if you are travelling with children: 20 theme parks within reach against none in Fort Lauderdale, more park space near the centre and more to walk to in the centre itself.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Fort Lauderdale leads by 84 points.84
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 68 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | — |
Places to eat. Orlando leads by 3 points.3
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 48 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 371 | 365 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 21 |
Museums & heritage. Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.12
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 8 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 11 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 2 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 43 | 18 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Orlando leads by 7 points.7
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 41 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 259 | 344 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 144 | 216 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 56 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 18 | 39 |
Nature & day trips. Fort Lauderdale leads by 37 points.37
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 44 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 52 hectares |
Good for families. Orlando leads by 70 points.70
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 89 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | — |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 52 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 20 |
| Theme park ground ha 30 km | — | 8,853 |
| Zoo aquarium 15 km | — | 2 |
| Scoring variant | — | familyScoreThemeGroundLed |
| Declared | — | 2026-08-25 |
| Register | — | seed/editorial-overrides.json |
Sights concentration. Orlando leads by 16 points.16
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 16 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 2 | 10 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Fort Lauderdale and Orlando are level on 43.
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.2
| Fort Lauderdale | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 24.2 °C to 32.3 °C | 22.1 °C to 33.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 219 mm | 46 mm to 203 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Fort Lauderdale has 7 beaches nearby where Orlando has 1, and 12 months of sea at 21°C or more where Orlando has none, so swimming is possible all year. Its surroundings are more protected too, 20% of the land against 15%, which shows in the range of days out.
Orlando is built for families: 20 theme parks within reach against none, somewhat more park space near the centre, and many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Where they are alike
Both are warm all year and neither has a genuinely cool season: Orlando runs 22-33°C across the twelve months, Fort Lauderdale 24-32°C, and in both cities every month brings more than 40mm of rain.
Eating out and going out are close to level. The two have about as many restaurants near the centre as each other, though Orlando's kitchens span a wider range, and both have a working set of bars and clubs, Orlando's rather larger and more central.
Which traveller are you?
Families should go to Orlando. It has 20 theme parks within reach where Fort Lauderdale has none, more park space near the centre, and enough notable places within walking distance to fill a day without driving.
Anyone whose holiday is built around swimming wants Fort Lauderdale: 7 beaches nearby, and sea that stays at 21°C or more every month, reaching 30°C in August.
Walkers and hikers lean the same way: 20% of the land around Fort Lauderdale is protected against 15% around Orlando, though Orlando answers with more park space close to the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The value figure is a national price level, identical for both cities by construction, and the dataset carries no daily budget for either, so nothing in it tells you which trip costs more.
The weather picture is incomplete: no sunshine figure exists for either city, so that side of the comparison is unmeasured. What is measured shows the warmest months are also the wettest, with 166-219mm in Fort Lauderdale from June to September, and year-round sea at 21°C or more says nothing about how busy the beaches are then.
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. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre).
Fort Lauderdale is at its best from January to March, with highs of 24-27°C, sea around 25°C and 55-57mm of rain. November and December still work, though November brings 91mm.
Orlando peaks in November, at 26°C and 46mm, the driest month either city records, and again in February and March. Summer suits neither: June to September brings 166-219mm in Fort Lauderdale and 160-203mm in Orlando, where daytime highs reach 33°C.
Getting there
| Flying from | Fort Lauderdale | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 40 m €140-271 1 stop FLL · 7 km | 2 h 25 m €158-197 MCO · 14 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 3 h 0 m €167-168 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 40 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 55 m €119-159 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 35 m €157-165 MCO · 14 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 25 m €164-177 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 5 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| PhiladelphiaPHL, TTN | 2 h 35 m €125-184 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 20 m €126-198 MCO · 14 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 5 m €218-274 1 stop FLL · 7 km | 4 h 50 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| RaleighRDU | 2 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km | 1 h 40 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| NassauNAS | 1 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km | 1 h 20 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| MadridMAD | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 41 km | 8 h 55 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 41 km | 15 h 20 m no fares MCO · 14 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 | Fort Lauderdale | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 34 m |
| Main airport | Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre125 non-stop destinations | Orlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Fort Lauderdale | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 182,760 | 334,854 |
| People per km² | 1,829 | 1,086 |
| Museums within 10 km | 6 | 11 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 25 | 30 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | – |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Lauderdale or Orlando somewhere new.