VacationSelector
The Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline, Macau
MacauThe Grand Lisboa above the Macau skyline
A chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain, Whistler
WhistlerA chairlift and the runs on Whistler Mountain

Photos: Macau by tian Jin, Pexels License; Whistler by Ruth Hartnup, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Macau or Whistler?

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 Macau for

  • culture and sights
  • food and drink
  • prices

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

Choose Whistler for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • families
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Whistler’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. Macau 24, Whistler 30: Whistler leads by 6 points.
Food & drink. Macau 77, Whistler 40: Macau leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Macau 62, Whistler 20: Macau leads by 42 points.
Nightlife. Macau 40, Whistler 42: Whistler leads by 2 points.
Nature & outdoors. Macau 5, Whistler 97: Whistler leads by 92 points.
Day trips. Macau 52, Whistler 30: Macau leads by 22 points.
Good for families. Macau 48, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Macau 60, Whistler 68: Whistler leads by 8 points.
Shopping & style. Macau 58, Whistler 30: Macau leads by 28 points.
Affordability. Macau 44, Whistler 12: Macau leads by 32 points.
Live music & performing arts. Macau 36, Whistler 15: Macau leads by 21 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Macau 40, Whistler 60: Whistler leads by 20 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Macau and Whistler.

Your match

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

Macau
Best match
46match

Wins on culture and sights and food and drink with your weighting.

Whistler
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and families with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Macau in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
281 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
29 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

Whistler in July

25 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
46 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300400JFMAMJJASOND
MacauWhistler

Where the figures come from

Whistler 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Macau: 1991-2020 normals, Taipa (3.9 km from centre). Whistler: 1991-2020 normals, Whistler - Nesters (1.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMacauWhistler
Official languagePortuguese, Cantonese, Standard ChineseFrench, English
CurrencyPataca (MOP)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsFGM220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+8UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number999911
Elevation22 m670 m
Main airportMacau International Airport (MFM)7 km from centre41 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)104 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year-11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMacauWhistler
City population682,10013,982
People per km²5,91658
Museums within 10 km281
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Macau or Whistler 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). 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.

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.