VacationSelector
The Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier, Los Angeles
Los AngelesThe Ferris wheel on Santa Monica Pier
Cliff-top hotels above the harbour, Sorrento
SorrentoCliff-top hotels above the harbour

Photos: Los Angeles by Domenico Convertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Sorrento by Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Sorrento?

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
  • shopping

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

Choose Sorrento for

  • day trips
  • getting around
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on Sorrento’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 and Sorrento are level on 60.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Sorrento 60: Los Angeles leads by 24 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Sorrento 32: Los Angeles leads by 34 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Sorrento 28: Los Angeles leads by 39 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles and Sorrento are level on 80.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Sorrento 95: Sorrento leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Sorrento 42: Los Angeles leads by 42 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Sorrento 58: Sorrento leads by 33 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Sorrento 38: Los Angeles leads by 42 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Sorrento 32: Sorrento leads by 8 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Sorrento 20: Los Angeles leads by 63 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Sorrento 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 Sorrento.

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.

Sorrento
49match

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

Sorrento in July

29 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
21 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

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesSorrento

Where the figures come from

Sorrento 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.

Sorrento's sunshine is measured 54 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). Sorrento: 2005-2025 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Capri (17 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesSorrento
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 m50 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsNaples International Airport (NAP)30 km from centre131 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesSorrento
City population3,898,74715,407
People per km²2,9941,541
Museums within 10 km396
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 Sorrento 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.