VacationSelector
The skyline and yachts on the canals, Fort Lauderdale
Fort LauderdaleThe skyline and yachts on the canals
Palm Springs

Photos: Fort Lauderdale by KeanoManu, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Fort Lauderdale 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 Fort Lauderdale for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • culture and sights

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. Fort Lauderdale 88, Palm Springs 7: Fort Lauderdale leads by 81 points.
Food & drink. Fort Lauderdale 47, Palm Springs 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Fort Lauderdale 28, Palm Springs 42: Palm Springs leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale 52, Palm Springs 36: Fort Lauderdale leads by 16 points.
Nature & outdoors. Fort Lauderdale 62, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 16 points.
Day trips. Fort Lauderdale 58, Palm Springs 38: Fort Lauderdale leads by 20 points.
Good for families. Fort Lauderdale 66, Palm Springs 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 26 points.
Getting around. Fort Lauderdale 32, Palm Springs 22: Fort Lauderdale leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Fort Lauderdale 52, Palm Springs 44: Fort Lauderdale leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Fort Lauderdale and Palm Springs are level on 32.
Live music & performing arts. Fort Lauderdale 42, Palm Springs 40: Fort Lauderdale leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Fort Lauderdale 40, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Fort Lauderdale and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Fort Lauderdale
Best match
50match

Wins on beaches and families with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Fort Lauderdale in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
166 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
Fort LauderdalePalm Springs

Where the figures come from

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. Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureFort LauderdalePalm Springs
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation11 m146 m
Main airportFort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre136 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureFort LauderdalePalm Springs
City population182,76044,575
People per km²1,829181
Museums within 10 km63
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Lauderdale 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.