VacationSelector
A palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind, Los Angeles
Los AngelesA palm-lined Hollywood street with the Hollywood Sign behind
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Los Angeles by BenSherman, Public domain; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Los Angeles or Wilmington?

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

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

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • getting around

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 13 points.
Food & drink. Los Angeles 84, Wilmington 48: Los Angeles leads by 36 points.
Culture & sights. Los Angeles 66, Wilmington 40: Los Angeles leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Los Angeles 67, Wilmington 40: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Los Angeles 80, Wilmington 58: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Day trips. Los Angeles 60, Wilmington 45: Los Angeles leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Los Angeles 84, Wilmington 62: Los Angeles leads by 22 points.
Getting around. Los Angeles 25, Wilmington 28: Wilmington leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Los Angeles 80, Wilmington 33: Los Angeles leads by 47 points.
Affordability. Los Angeles 24, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Los Angeles 83, Wilmington 40: Los Angeles leads by 43 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Los Angeles 60, Wilmington 33: Los Angeles leads by 27 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Los Angeles and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Los Angeles
Best match
64match

Wins on shopping and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Wilmington
45match

Wins on prices 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

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Los AngelesWilmington

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Los Angeles: 1991-2020 normals, Los Angeles Airport (18.5 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureLos AngelesWilmington
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 m9 m
Main airportLos Angeles International Airport (LAX)19 km from centre177 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureLos AngelesWilmington
City population3,898,747115,451
People per km²2,994839
Museums within 10 km392
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone6 months

Where else could you go?

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