VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
The coloured houses stepping down to the sea, Positano
PositanoThe coloured houses stepping down to the sea

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Positano by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Positano?

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
  • families
  • nightlife

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

Choose Positano for

  • day trips
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Positano’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, Positano 77: Positano leads by 17 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Positano 40: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Positano 22: Los Angeles leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Positano 22: Los Angeles leads by 45 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles and Positano are level on 80.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Positano 88: Positano leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Positano 28: Los Angeles leads by 56 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Positano 35: Positano leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Positano 45: Los Angeles leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Positano 10: Los Angeles leads by 14 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Positano 15: Los Angeles leads by 68 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Positano 45: Los Angeles leads by 15 points.
0255075100

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

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 families with your weighting.

Positano
42match

Wins on day trips 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
No recordsunshine a day
20 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Positano in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
27 mmrain in the month
11 hsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesPositano

Where the figures come from

Positano's temperatures are measured 25 km from the centre, at Capri.

Positano 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.

Positano's sunshine is measured 59 km from the centre, at Grazzanise.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Positano: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (25.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesPositano
Official language-Italian
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Euro (EUR)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzCFL230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+1, UTC+2 in summer
Emergency number911112
Elevation106 m142 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)33 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesPositano
City population3,898,7473,729
People per km²2,994429
Museums within 10 km3910
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km15
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Los Angeles or Positano 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. Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.