VacationSelector
A palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind, Los Angeles
Los AngelesA palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind
A purple lifeguard tower on South Beach, Miami Beach
Miami BeachA purple lifeguard tower on South Beach

Photos: Los Angeles by BenSherman, Public domain; Miami Beach by Radomianin, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Miami Beach?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts
  • shopping

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

Choose Miami Beach for

  • getting around
  • beaches
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Miami Beach’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, Miami Beach 92: Miami Beach leads by 32 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Miami Beach 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Miami Beach 52: Los Angeles leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Miami Beach 80: Miami Beach leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Miami Beach 52: Los Angeles leads by 28 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Miami Beach 55: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Miami Beach 60: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Miami Beach 58: Miami Beach leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Miami Beach 55: Los Angeles leads by 25 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Miami Beach 20: Los Angeles leads by 4 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Miami Beach 55: Los Angeles leads by 28 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Miami Beach 48: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Miami Beach.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Miami Beach
57match

Wins on getting around and beaches 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
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Miami Beach in July

33 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
186 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesMiami Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Miami Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (18.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesMiami Beach
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
Elevation106 m1 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsMiami International Airport (MIA)16 km from centre198 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesMiami Beach
City population3,898,74782,890
People per km²2,9942,109
Museums within 10 km3914
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Miami Beach 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.