VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Las Vegas or Shanghai?

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 Las Vegas for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • day trips
  • families
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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. Las Vegas and Shanghai are level on 10.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Shanghai 80: Las Vegas leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Shanghai 25: Las Vegas leads by 43 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 65 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 55 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 47 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 20 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Shanghai 66: Las Vegas leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 15 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Las Vegas and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Las Vegas
47match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on day trips 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.

Las Vegas in July

40 °Cdaytime high
27 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasShanghai

Temperature and rainfall are 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).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation610 m4 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasShanghai
City population641,90324,870,895
People per km²1,8433,922
Museums within 10 km2145
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
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.

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). 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.