VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Palm 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

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm 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, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 22 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Palm Beach 47: Los Angeles leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Palm Beach 45: Los Angeles leads by 21 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Palm Beach 32: Los Angeles leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Palm Beach 58: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Palm Beach 55: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Palm Beach 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Palm Beach 32: Palm Beach leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Palm Beach 66: Los Angeles leads by 14 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Palm Beach 12: Los Angeles leads by 12 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Palm Beach 45: Los Angeles leads by 38 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Palm Beach 55: Los Angeles leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Palm 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 live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on beaches 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

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesPalm 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). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesPalm 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 m2 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesPalm Beach
City population3,898,7479,245
People per km²2,994322
Museums within 10 km394
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 Palm 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.