VacationSelector

Macau or Washington DC?

Two destinations compared in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.

The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
Macau

Photo: tian Jin, Pexels License

The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DC

Photo: Guohua Song, Pexels License

Your match

Macau
46
match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

Washington DC
✓ Best match
56
match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.

Scoreboard

Our verdict on each category, scored 0 to 100 against fixed benchmark cities.

MacauWashington DC
Beaches & swimming. Macau leads by 12 points.12
Food & drink. Macau leads by 10 points.10
Culture & sights. Washington DC leads by 22 points.22
Nightlife. Washington DC leads by 17 points.17
Nature & outdoors. Washington DC leads by 59 points.59
Day trips. Washington DC leads by 21 points.21
Good for families. Washington DC leads by 25 points.25
Getting around. Washington DC leads by 12 points.12
Shopping & style. Macau leads by 6 points.6
Affordability. Macau leads by 16 points.16
Live music & performing arts. Washington DC leads by 31 points.31
Wellness & relaxation. Macau leads by 14 points.14
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Washington DC.

When should you go?

Pick the month you can travel and see both cities side by side. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Climate figures for July
JulyMacauWashington DC
Daytime high32 °C32 °C
Night-time low26 °C22 °C
Rainfall in the month281 mm108 mm
Sunshine7 hours a dayNo figure
Sea temperature29 °C25 °C
Daylight13 hours a day15 hours a day

The whole year

Each row is shaded against that destination’s own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that figure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Daytime high, °C
Macau
19
19
22
25
29
31
32
32
31
29
25
20
Washington DC
7
9
13
20
24
29
32
31
27
21
14
9
Sea temperature, °C
Macau
19
19
20
23
26
28
29
29
28
27
24
21
Washington DC
3
3
4
9
14
20
25
26
23
18
12
7
Rainfall, mm
Macau
34
42
78
160
285
369
281
338
233
71
38
32
Washington DC
72
65
89
82
101
107
108
83
100
93
74
86
Daylight, hours per day
Macau
11
11
12
13
13
14
13
13
12
12
11
11
Washington DC
10
11
12
13
14
15
15
14
13
11
10
10
Sunshine, hours per day
Macau
4
3
3
3
4
5
7
6
6
6
5
5
Washington DC
No sunshine record

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

WorseBetter

Getting there

Flying fromMacauWashington DC
Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY
14 h 25 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
5 h 0 m
€226-372
1 stop
DCA · 5 km
New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA
15 h 55 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 5 m
€233-271
DCA · 5 km
SeoulICN, GMP
3 h 10 m
no fares
MFM · 7 km
13 h 50 m
no fares
IAD · 37 km
BeijingPEK, PKX
3 h 0 m
€181-203
1 stop
MFM · 7 km
13 h 45 m
no fares
IAD · 37 km
TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ
15 h 25 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 20 m
€158-333
IAD · 37 km
SeattleSEA, BFI
12 h 55 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
5 h 5 m
€329-399
1 stop
DCA · 5 km
BostonBOS, PSM
15 h 45 m
no fares
HKG · 41 km
1 h 25 m
€162-173
DCA · 5 km
Abu DhabiAUH
7 h 45 m
€690-962
2 stops
HKG · 41 km
14 h 5 m
no fares
IAD · 37 km
LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2
12 h 0 m
€570-666
1 stop
HKG · 41 km
7 h 35 m
€507-561
1 stop
IAD · 37 km
Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC
17 h 15 m
no fares
SZX · 57 km
4 h 10 m
no fares
IAD · 37 km

The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.

Before you go

MeasureMacauWashington DC
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard Chinese-
CurrencyPataca (MOP)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m72 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauWashington DC
City population682,100689,545
People per km²5,9163,896
Museums within 10 km2899
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau or Washington DC somewhere new.

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Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). 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. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm. Typical fares from Travelpayouts (Aviasales data). Route-level air passenger statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate and flight figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-10-27. Typical prices can be up to 7 days old. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.