VacationSelector
The Jet d'Eau and a lake boat, Geneva
GenevaThe Jet d'Eau and a lake boat
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Geneva by Diviosen, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Geneva or New York?

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 Geneva for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • day trips

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

Choose New York for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. Geneva 45, New York 50: New York leads by 5 points.
Food & drink. Geneva 55, New York 92: New York leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Geneva 58, New York 89: New York leads by 31 points.
Nightlife. Geneva 38, New York 97: New York leads by 59 points.
Nature & outdoors. Geneva 82, New York 55: Geneva leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Geneva 80, New York 68: Geneva leads by 12 points.
Good for families. Geneva 57, New York 70: New York leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Geneva 86, New York 82: Geneva leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Geneva 68, New York 97: New York leads by 29 points.
Affordability. Geneva 5, New York 12: New York leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Geneva 60, New York 99: New York leads by 39 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Geneva 55, New York 42: Geneva leads by 13 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Geneva and New York.

Your match

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

Geneva
57match

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

New York
Best match
71match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Geneva in July

27 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
77 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
GenevaNew York

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Geneva: 1991-2020 normals, Geneve-Cointrin (5.7 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureGenevaNew York
Official languageFrench, German, Italian, Romansh-
CurrencySwiss Franc (CHF)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCJ230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation403 m25 m
Main airportGeneva International Airport (GVA)5 km from centre150 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureGenevaNew York
City population211,1528,804,190
People per km²13,2807,256
Museums within 10 km34157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Geneva or New York somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.