Las Vegas or Shanghai?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather with your weighting.
Wins on good for families and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Shanghai leads by 17 points.17
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 0 | 17 |
| Swim season months | 0 | 5 |
| Beaches 10 km | 0 | 0 |
| Coast distance | 372 km | 18 km |
| Water distance | — | 18 km |
Museums & heritage. Shanghai leads by 26 points.26
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 19 | 45 |
| Museums within 10 km | 24 | 108 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 4 | 28 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 17 | 26 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nature & day trips. Las Vegas leads by 21 points.21
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 63 | 42 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 50 | 9 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 82 |
| Park area within 2 km | 7 hectares | 83 hectares |
Good for families. Shanghai leads by 47 points.47
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 34 | 81 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 19 | 86 |
| Park area within 2 km | 7 hectares | 83 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 4 | 10 |
Sights concentration. Las Vegas and Shanghai are level on 51.
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 51 | 51 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 75 | 73 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Shanghai leads by 36 points.36
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 79 |
| Price level global | 100 | 49 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Las Vegas leads by 7 points.7
| Las Vegas | Shanghai | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 65 |
| Monthly daytime high | 13.9 °C to 40.3 °C | 8.5 °C to 33.2 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 1 mm to 21 mm | 43 mm to 216 mm |
| Dry months | 12 | 0 |
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. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Las Vegas | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 1 h 5 m €76-164 LAS · 4 km | 12 h 55 m €606-798 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 12 h 0 m no fares LAS · 4 km | 1 h 40 m €173-183 PVG · 33 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 4 h 55 m €242-269 LAS · 4 km | 14 h 40 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| San FranciscoSFO | 1 h 25 m €91-219 LAS · 4 km | 12 h 15 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| DallasDFW, DAL, AFW | 2 h 40 m €154-209 LAS · 4 km | 14 h 35 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 2 h 20 m €132-243 1 stop LAS · 4 km | 11 h 30 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 10 h 35 m no fares LAS · 4 km | 11 h 30 m €528-630 1 stop PVG · 33 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 4 h 20 m €261-438 1 stop LAS · 4 km | 14 h 5 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| DetroitDTW, DET, YIP | 4 h 0 m no fares LAS · 4 km | 14 h 10 m no fares PVG · 33 km |
| VancouverYVR, YDT | 2 h 35 m no fares LAS · 4 km | 11 h 15 m no fares PVG · 33 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 | Las Vegas | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | Putonghua |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Yuan Renminbi (CNY) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | ACI220 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119 |
| Elevation | 610 m | 4 m |
| Main airport | Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinations | Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre200 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 6 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Las Vegas | Shanghai |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 641,903 | 24,870,895 |
| People per km² | 1,843 | 3,922 |
| Museums within 10 km | 21 | 44 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 49 | 64 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | – | 5 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Las Vegas or Shanghai somewhere new.