VacationSelector
The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, Las Vegas
Las VegasThe Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river

Photos: Las Vegas by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped; Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Las Vegas or Tampa?

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

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Tampa for

  • beaches
  • families
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on Tampa’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 10, Tampa 70: Tampa leads by 60 points.
Food & drink. Las Vegas 68, Tampa 57: Las Vegas leads by 11 points.
Culture & sights. Las Vegas 25, Tampa 42: Tampa leads by 17 points.
Nightlife. Las Vegas 88, Tampa 52: Las Vegas leads by 36 points.
Nature & outdoors. Las Vegas 68, Tampa 55: Las Vegas leads by 13 points.
Day trips. Las Vegas 25, Tampa 54: Tampa leads by 29 points.
Good for families. Las Vegas 25, Tampa 78: Tampa leads by 53 points.
Getting around. Las Vegas 38, Tampa 22: Las Vegas leads by 16 points.
Shopping & style. Las Vegas 64, Tampa 40: Las Vegas leads by 24 points.
Affordability. Las Vegas 35, Tampa 40: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Live music & performing arts. Las Vegas 78, Tampa 47: Las Vegas leads by 31 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Las Vegas 40, Tampa 30: Las Vegas leads by 10 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Too close to call, 2 points apart

Las Vegas
47match

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

Tampa
49match

Wins on beaches 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

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Las VegasTampa

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Las Vegas: 1991-2020 normals, McCarran International Airport (8.5 km from centre). Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLas VegasTampa
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation610 m30 m
Main airportHarry Reid International Airport (LAS)4 km from centre159 non-stop destinationsTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLas VegasTampa
City population641,903384,959
People per km²1,843848
Museums within 10 km216
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-8 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Las Vegas or Tampa 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.