VacationSelector

How it works

What the scores mean, what is measured rather than judged, and where every figure comes from.

Our verdict, on a fixed scale

Every city is scored from 0 to 100 in 12 categories, from beaches and food to day trips, live music and wellness. The scores are our editorial verdict. They are not calculated from counts of bars or museums, because a count says how many there are and nothing about how good they are, and the maps behind such counts cover some countries far better than others.

What keeps a verdict honest is the scale it is set on. Each category has a set of benchmark cities with fixed scores: two or three of the world’s best at the top, a few around 75, a few around 50, and a few near the foot. A city is scored by placing it against those benchmarks, never against the other cities on this site. So a score does not move when we add somewhere new, and a 75 for food means the same in every city. The benchmarks were chosen for how clearly they define each level, whether or not we cover them, and they change only when we publish a new version of the scale. This is version v3.

Each score comes with a text about that city in that category, written to stay true for years: the character of the place, its neighbourhoods and its seasons rather than the name of this year’s bar. The texts and scores are drafted with the help of an AI model and checked by a second, independent pass against the benchmarks before they are published; anything that does not hold up is sent back. Every published comparison also has its own text for each category, written for that pair, so no page repeats another.

What is measured

The weather is not a score. A city that is perfect in May can be too hot in August, so each comparison shows the year month by month and lets you pick the month you can travel. Those figures are measured: thirty-year climate normals from the nearest weather station, satellite sea temperatures and daylight hours. Where the nearest station is more than 25 km from the centre or stands well above or below it, or where no station is within reach and the figures come from a gridded climate model, the page says so beside the figures.

The facts (language, currency, sockets, time zone, airport) come from openly licensed sources. Every measured figure names its source on the page. A model never supplies a measured figure.

The 12 categories

Beaches & swimming
How good, varied and swimmable the beaches within about an hour are, how warm the water gets in season, and how central beach life is to a stay. A cold shore scores low even with sand. Cancun and Sydney set the top; inland Madrid and Mexico City the foot.
Food & drink
The quality, character and depth of eating and drinking for a visitor: local cuisine, street food, markets, cafes, wine, coffee and beer, from cheap to fine dining. Tokyo and Paris set the top; small resort towns such as Bled and Goreme sit low.
Culture & sights
Museums, historic architecture, landmarks and heritage: how much there is worth seeing, and how good it is. Rome, Paris, Kyoto and Cairo set the top; Interlaken, a base for mountains rather than museums, sits near the foot.
Nightlife
The depth, variety and character of going out: bars, clubs, how late and how lively. Live music has its own category. Berlin and New York set the top; quiet villages such as Bled sit at the foot.
Nature & outdoors
Landscapes and the outdoors within reach of the city: mountains, coast, forest, parks, hiking, cycling, water sports and wildlife. Swimming beaches are scored separately. Cape Town and Vancouver set the top; Doha and Macau the foot.
Day trips
The towns, heritage sites, wine regions and islands within an easy day trip, roughly two hours by train, bus or car. Landscapes belong to nature. Florence and Naples set the top; Doha and Rovaniemi the foot.
Good for families
How well a vacation with children works: attractions for kids, parks and beaches, how easy the city is, and how welcome children are. Orlando and San Diego set the top; Varanasi and Cusco the foot.
Getting around
How easy it is for a visitor to get around: a walkable centre, simple public transport, short distances between sights, and whether a car is needed. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Zurich set the top; Orlando and Ubud the foot.
Shopping & style
The shopping a visitor cares about: flagship and luxury streets, design and independent boutiques, markets and bazaars, crafts and department stores. Tokyo, Paris and New York set the top; Bled the foot.
Affordability
How cheap the city itself is for a visitor: rooms, eating out, transport and attractions. 100 means among the cheapest worthwhile places in the world, so a high score is good for your budget. Hanoi and Kathmandu set the top; Zurich and Reykjavik the foot.
Live music & performing arts
Opera, classical concerts, theatre, musicals, jazz, live music and dance that a visitor can actually attend. Bars and clubs belong to nightlife. New York, London and Vienna set the top; Bled and Goreme the foot.
Wellness & relaxation
Spas, thermal baths, hammams and onsen first, then a slow, restorative pace and places to unwind. Beaches and nature are scored elsewhere. Budapest and Baden-Baden set the top; Cairo and Manchester sit low.

Your weighting, your verdict

The match score is a weighted average of the 12 category scores. The sliders set the weights, the calculation runs in your browser, and the link records your weighting so a shared comparison shows exactly what you saw. The underlying scores never change with the sliders; only their importance does.

Sources and licences

Rubric v3 · data snapshot 2026-11-02. Estimates (daily budgets) are labelled as estimates wherever they appear.