VacationSelector
Big Ben and Westminster Bridge, London
LondonBig Ben and Westminster Bridge
Palm Springs

Photos: London by AXP Photography, Pexels License.

London or Palm Springs?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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, Palm Springs 7: London leads by 18 points.
Food & drink. London 84, Palm Springs 40: London leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. London 94, Palm Springs 42: London leads by 52 points.
Nightlife. London 88, Palm Springs 36: London leads by 52 points.
Nature & outdoors. London 57, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 21 points.
Day trips. London 90, Palm Springs 38: London leads by 52 points.
Good for families. London 82, Palm Springs 40: London leads by 42 points.
Getting around. London 85, Palm Springs 22: London leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. London 95, Palm Springs 44: London leads by 51 points.
Affordability. London 15, Palm Springs 32: Palm Springs leads by 17 points.
Live music & performing arts. London 98, Palm Springs 40: London leads by 58 points.
Wellness & relaxation. London 40, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: London and Palm Springs.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness 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
16 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
LondonPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs has no rain gauge within 25 km of the centre, so its rainfall comes from a gridded climate dataset read at the city rather than from a gauge further away.

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). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLondonPalm Springs
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 m146 m
Main airportLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)23 km from centre224 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year8 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLondonPalm Springs
City population8,799,72844,575
People per km²5,598181
Museums within 10 km2163
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow London or Palm Springs 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.