VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Flinders Street Station, Melbourne
MelbourneFlinders Street Station

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Melbourne by Medelam, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Melbourne?

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 Los Angeles for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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

Choose Melbourne for

  • getting around
  • nightlife
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Melbourne’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. Los Angeles 60, Melbourne 50: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Melbourne 75: Los Angeles leads by 9 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Melbourne 57: Los Angeles leads by 9 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Melbourne 75: Melbourne leads by 8 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Melbourne 70: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Melbourne 62: Melbourne leads by 2 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Melbourne 73: Los Angeles leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Melbourne 76: Melbourne leads by 51 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Melbourne 70: Los Angeles leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Melbourne 31: Melbourne leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Melbourne 72: Los Angeles leads by 11 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Melbourne 54: Los Angeles leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Melbourne.

Your match

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

Too close to call, level with your weighting

Los Angeles
64match

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

Melbourne
64match

Wins on getting around and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Melbourne in July

14 °Cdaytime high
6 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesMelbourne

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Melbourne: 1991-2020 normals, Latrobe University / Kingsbury (13.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesMelbourne
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Australian Dollar (AUD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+10, UTC+11 in summer
Emergency number911000
Elevation106 m31 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsMelbourne Airport (MEL)19 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesMelbourne
City population3,898,7475,350,705
People per km²2,994535
Museums within 10 km3943
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km11
Swim season, months above 21 °CNoneNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Melbourne 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). 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.