VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License; Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

London or Los Angeles?

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 London for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Los Angeles for

  • beaches
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Los Angeles’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. London 25, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. London and Los Angeles are level on 84.
Culture & sights. London 94, Los Angeles 66: London leads by 28 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Los Angeles 67: London leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Los Angeles 80: Los Angeles leads by 23 points.
Day trips. London 90, Los Angeles 60: London leads by 30 points.
Good for families. London 82, Los Angeles 84: Los Angeles leads by 2 points.
Getting around. London 85, Los Angeles 25: London leads by 60 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Los Angeles 80: London leads by 15 points.
Affordability. London 15, Los Angeles 24: Los Angeles leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Los Angeles 83: London leads by 15 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Los Angeles 60: Los Angeles leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Los Angeles.

Your match

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

London
Best match
71match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Los Angeles
64match

Wins on beaches and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

London in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
LondonLos Angeles

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. London: 1992-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, London Weather Centre (1.3 km from centre). Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonLos Angeles
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyPound Sterling (GBP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsG230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC, UTC+1 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112 or 999911
Elevation4 m106 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonLos Angeles
City population8,799,7283,898,747
People per km²5,5982,994
Museums within 10 km21639
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km41
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Los Angeles 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.