VacationSelector
Swayambhunath with its prayer flags, Kathmandu
KathmanduSwayambhunath with its prayer flags
Palm Springs

Photos: Kathmandu by Nabin K. Sapkota, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Kathmandu 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 Kathmandu for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • families
  • live music and the arts

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. Kathmandu 4, Palm Springs 7: Palm Springs leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Kathmandu 55, Palm Springs 40: Kathmandu leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Kathmandu 82, Palm Springs 42: Kathmandu leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Kathmandu and Palm Springs are level on 36.
Nature & outdoors. Kathmandu 70, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Kathmandu 56, Palm Springs 38: Kathmandu leads by 18 points.
Good for families. Kathmandu 20, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Kathmandu 25, Palm Springs 22: Kathmandu leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Kathmandu 55, Palm Springs 44: Kathmandu leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Kathmandu 97, Palm Springs 32: Kathmandu leads by 65 points.
Live music & performing arts. Kathmandu 28, Palm Springs 40: Palm Springs leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Kathmandu 45, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 35 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Kathmandu and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Kathmandu
Best match
48match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Kathmandu in July

29 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
384 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
KathmanduPalm 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. Kathmandu: 1991-2020 normals, Kathmandu Airport (4.7 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureKathmanduPalm Springs
Official languageNepali-
CurrencyNepalese Rupee (NPR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCM230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+5:45UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency numberPolice 100, ambulance 102, fire 101911
Elevation1,300 m146 m
Main airportTribhuvan International Airport (KTM)4 km from centre38 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-13 days

By the numbers

MeasureKathmanduPalm Springs
City population845,76744,575
People per km²17,121181
Museums within 10 km93
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Kathmandu 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.