VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Whitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum, Palm Beach
Palm BeachWhitehall, Henry Flagler's mansion, now the Flagler Museum

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License; Palm Beach by Khowald, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Madrid or Palm Beach?

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 Madrid for

  • nightlife
  • getting around
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Beach’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. Madrid 5, Palm Beach 82: Palm Beach leads by 77 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Palm Beach 47: Madrid leads by 33 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Palm Beach 45: Madrid leads by 41 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Palm Beach 32: Madrid leads by 53 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Palm Beach 58: Madrid leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Palm Beach 55: Madrid leads by 34 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Palm Beach 62: Madrid leads by 6 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Palm Beach 32: Madrid leads by 52 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Palm Beach 66: Madrid leads by 9 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Palm Beach 12: Madrid leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Palm Beach 45: Madrid leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Palm Beach 55: Palm Beach leads by 19 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on nightlife and getting around with your weighting.

Palm Beach
49match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Madrid in July

33 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
9 mmrain in the month
12 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
MadridPalm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (6.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridPalm Beach
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m2 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPalm Beach
City population3,506,7309,245
People per km²5,801322
Museums within 10 km884
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40
Swim season, months above 21 °C-12 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Palm Beach 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.