VacationSelector
The fountain on Plaza Mayor, Lima
LimaThe fountain on Plaza Mayor
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Lima by James C., CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Lima or Washington DC?

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 Lima for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • food and drink

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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. Lima 42, Washington DC 12: Lima leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Lima 88, Washington DC 67: Lima leads by 21 points.
Culture & sights. Lima 66, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Lima 62, Washington DC 57: Lima leads by 5 points.
Nature & outdoors. Lima 45, Washington DC 64: Washington DC leads by 19 points.
Day trips. Lima 34, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 39 points.
Good for families. Lima 42, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 31 points.
Getting around. Lima 35, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Lima and Washington DC are level on 52.
Affordability. Lima 70, Washington DC 28: Lima leads by 42 points.
Live music & performing arts. Lima 53, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 14 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Lima 25, Washington DC 26: Washington DC leads by 1 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Lima and Washington DC.

Your match

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

Lima
51match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on day trips and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Lima in July

19 °Cdaytime high
16 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
1 hsunshine a day
18 °Csea
12 hdaylight a day

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
LimaWashington DC

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Lima: 1991-2020 normals, Lima-Callao / Aerop. Internacional Jorgechavez (10.9 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLimaWashington DC
Official languageSpanish, Aymara, Quechua-
CurrencySol (PEN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsABC220 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number111 or 911911
Elevation154 m72 m
Main airportJorge Chávez International Airport (LIM)9 km from centre61 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLimaWashington DC
City population9,943,800689,545
People per km²3,7213,896
Museums within 10 km4798
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C2 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Lima or Washington DC 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.