Fort Lauderdale 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 nightlife and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on sights concentration and beaches & swimming 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 more choice after dark and at the table, and easier reach to open country, with more protected land around the city and more park space near the centre.
Choose West Palm Beach if you want more beach to pick from, 10 against 7, a centre where the sights sit within walking distance, and a theme park for the children.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. West Palm Beach leads by 4 points.4
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 84 | 88 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 7 | 10 |
| Coast distance | 0 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 0 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Fort Lauderdale leads by 8 points.8
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 45 | 37 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 371 | 262 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 18 | 14 |
Museums & heritage. Fort Lauderdale leads by 3 points.3
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 20 | 17 |
| Museums within 10 km | 14 | 5 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 3 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 43 | 60 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Fort Lauderdale leads by 14 points.14
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 20 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 259 | 132 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 144 | 90 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 56 | 68 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 18 | 10 |
Nature & day trips. Fort Lauderdale leads by 12 points.12
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 69 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 20 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 51 | 45 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 34 hectares |
Good for families. West Palm Beach leads by 2 points.2
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 21 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 2 | 3 |
| Park area within 2 km | 45 hectares | 34 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 0 | 1 |
Sights concentration. West Palm Beach leads by 12 points.12
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 12 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 2 | 8 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach are level on 43.
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Fort Lauderdale leads by 1 points.1
| Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 75 |
| Monthly daytime high | 24.2 °C to 32.3 °C | 24 °C to 32.5 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 55 mm to 219 mm | 67 mm to 217 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Fort Lauderdale has about twice as many places to drink and twice as many nightclubs, roughly half of them near the centre, plus somewhat more restaurants and a wider range of kitchens. It also has about three times as many museums, and more protected land around it, 20% against 15%.
West Palm Beach keeps its sightseeing tight, with many times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, about twice as many attractions close in, 10 beaches nearby against 7, and 1 theme park within reach where Fort Lauderdale has none.
Where they are alike
Weather is the closest match: both run daytime highs of about 24-32°C across the year, both peak in August, and neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less.
They also line up on swimming, families and heritage. The sea is 0km from both centres and both have 12 months of sea at 21°C or more. Neither carries much museum weight or a UNESCO site within day-trip reach, and neither offers a great deal for children.
Which traveller are you?
Beach days and swimming: West Palm Beach, with 10 beaches nearby against 7 and the sea 0km from the centre. Both swim all year, so the difference is choice of sand, not season.
Eating out and late evenings: Fort Lauderdale, with about twice as many bars and nightclubs and a wider spread of kitchens. Roughly half its nightlife sits near the centre, the rest further out.
Families and travellers without a car: West Palm Beach, where the notable places cluster within walking distance and there is 1 theme park within reach. Fort Lauderdale answers with more park space near the centre and more protected land around it.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The value figure both cities carry is a national price level, identical for the two by construction, and the dataset holds no daily budget for either, so nothing on this page tells you which trip works out dearer. Treat that axis as blank rather than as a tie.
The sunshine figure is missing for both, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured and the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Note also that the warmest sea, 30°C in August, arrives with the heaviest rain, 198-217mm, so strong beaches do not make late summer the beach month.
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). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).
Fort Lauderdale is at its best from December to March: highs of 24-27°C, sea at 25-26°C and rain down at 55-59mm from January to March, the driest stretch either city gets.
West Palm Beach peaks in the same winter window but runs wetter then, 67-86mm across January to March. It edges ahead in May, 126mm against 159mm, with highs of 30°C. Both are at their weakest in August, 32-33°C with 198-217mm of rain.
Getting there
| Flying from | Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 40 m €140-271 1 stop FLL · 7 km | 2 h 35 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 3 h 0 m €167-168 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 55 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 25 m €164-177 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 20 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| PhiladelphiaPHL, TTN | 2 h 35 m €125-184 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 30 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 55 m €119-159 FLL · 7 km | 2 h 50 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| MadridMAD | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 41 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 105 km |
| NassauNAS | 1 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km | 1 h 0 m no fares FLL · 72 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 45 m €93-112 FLL · 7 km | 1 h 40 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| CincinnatiCVG, LUK | 2 h 25 m no fares FLL · 7 km | 2 h 20 m no fares DJT · 6 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 41 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 | Fort Lauderdale | 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-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 11 m | 6 m |
| Main airport | Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre125 non-stop destinations | President Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre37 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Fort Lauderdale | West Palm Beach |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 182,760 | 117,415 |
| People per km² | 1,829 | 786 |
| Museums within 10 km | 6 | 4 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 25 | 18 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 12 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Fort Lauderdale or West Palm Beach somewhere new.