VacationSelector
The Royal Palace, Madrid
MadridThe Royal Palace
Palm Springs

Photos: Madrid by Mert Ocak, Pexels License.

Madrid or Palm Springs?

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

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • nightlife

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

Choose Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Palm Springs’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 Springs 7: Palm Springs leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Madrid 80, Palm Springs 40: Madrid leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. Madrid 86, Palm Springs 42: Madrid leads by 44 points.
Nightlife. Madrid 85, Palm Springs 36: Madrid leads by 49 points.
Nature & outdoors. Madrid 60, Palm Springs 78: Palm Springs leads by 18 points.
Day trips. Madrid 89, Palm Springs 38: Madrid leads by 51 points.
Good for families. Madrid 68, Palm Springs 40: Madrid leads by 28 points.
Getting around. Madrid 84, Palm Springs 22: Madrid leads by 62 points.
Shopping & style. Madrid 75, Palm Springs 44: Madrid leads by 31 points.
Affordability. Madrid 50, Palm Springs 32: Madrid leads by 18 points.
Live music & performing arts. Madrid 77, Palm Springs 40: Madrid leads by 37 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Madrid 36, Palm Springs 80: Palm Springs leads by 44 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Madrid and Palm Springs.

Your match

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

Madrid
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and day trips with your weighting.

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and nature and the outdoors 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
15 hdaylight a day

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
MadridPalm Springs

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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. Madrid: 1991-2020 normals, Madrid (1.7 km from centre). Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMadridPalm Springs
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation663 m146 m
Main airportAdolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport (MAD)14 km from centre239 non-stop destinationsPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMadridPalm Springs
City population3,506,73044,575
People per km²5,801181
Museums within 10 km883
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km40

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Madrid or Palm Springs 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.