VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Lower Broadway and its honky-tonks, Nashville
NashvilleLower Broadway and its honky-tonks

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Nashville by Warren LeMay, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Nashville?

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

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • shopping

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

Choose Nashville for

  • prices
  • getting around
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Nashville’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, Nashville 14: Los Angeles leads by 46 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Nashville 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Nashville 50: Los Angeles leads by 16 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Nashville 70: Nashville leads by 3 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Nashville 46: Los Angeles leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Nashville 52: Los Angeles leads by 8 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Nashville 55: Los Angeles leads by 29 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Nashville 30: Nashville leads by 5 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Nashville 42: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Nashville 30: Nashville leads by 6 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Nashville 82: Los Angeles leads by 1 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Nashville 20: Los Angeles leads by 40 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Nashville.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Nashville
46match

Wins on prices 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.

Los Angeles in July

24 °Cdaytime high
18 °Cnight-time low
1 mmrain in the month
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Nashville in July

32 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
104 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesNashville

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Nashville: 1991-2020 normals, Nashville Airport (9.6 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesNashville
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-6, UTC-5 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation106 m182 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsNashville International Airport (BNA)10 km from centre122 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesNashville
City population3,898,747689,447
People per km²2,994506
Museums within 10 km3912
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

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