Miami or Orlando?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on beaches & swimming and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Miami if the sea matters: 20 beaches within reach, water warm enough to swim in every month, and a centre where sights, restaurants and museums sit close together.
Choose Orlando if you are travelling with children and the trip is built around theme parks, 20 of them within reach against Miami's 2, rather than around a coastline or a walkable centre.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Miami leads by 95 points.95
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 12 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 20 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 68 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. Miami leads by 17 points.17
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 65 | 48 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 898 | 365 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 29 | 21 |
Museums & heritage. Miami leads by 15 points.15
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 23 | 8 |
| Museums within 10 km | 28 | 11 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 6 | 2 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 21 | 18 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Miami leads by 9 points.9
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 50 | 41 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 538 | 344 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 287 | 216 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 53 | 63 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 63 | 39 |
Nature & day trips. Miami leads by 28 points.28
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 44 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 16 | 15 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 48 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 50 hectares | 52 hectares |
Good for families. Orlando leads by 45 points.45
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 44 | 89 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 14 | — |
| Park area within 2 km | 50 hectares | 52 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 20 |
| Theme park ground ha 30 km | — | 8,853 |
| Zoo aquarium 15 km | — | 2 |
| Scoring variant | — | familyScoreThemeGroundLed |
| Declared | — | 2026-08-25 |
| Register | — | seed/editorial-overrides.json |
Sights concentration. Miami leads by 26 points.26
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 16 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 45 | 10 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Miami and Orlando are level on 43.
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Miami and Orlando are level on 74.
| Miami | Orlando | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 74 |
| Monthly daytime high | 24.7 °C to 32.7 °C | 22.1 °C to 33.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 47 mm to 267 mm | 46 mm to 203 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Miami is the coastal trip: 20 beaches nearby against Orlando's 1, and sea at 21°C or more in all 12 months where Orlando has none. Its centre also holds many times as many notable places within walking distance, about twice as many restaurants and about three times as many museums.
Orlando is built for family days out, with 20 theme parks within reach against Miami's 2. Park space near the centre is much the same in both, and protected land around each is close, 16% against 15%.
Where they are alike
Both stay warm year round: Orlando's daytime highs run 22-33°C, Miami's 25-33°C, and both peak at 33°C in July. Neither has a month at 40mm of rain or less, so there is no dry season in either.
Nights out and heritage are closer. Miami has more bars and clubs, but Orlando's are mostly near the centre, so an evening on foot works in both. Museums are modest in each, and neither has a UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach.
Which traveller are you?
A traveller who wants to swim should go to Miami: 20 beaches nearby and sea above 21°C in every month of the year. Orlando has one beach and no swimming season to speak of.
Parents travelling with children are better served by Orlando, where 20 theme parks sit within reach against Miami's 2. Park space near the centre is similar in both, so the difference is the parks themselves.
Anyone who plans days around eating out, museums and evenings on foot should pick Miami: about twice as many restaurants near the centre, three times as many museums, more bars and clubs, and far more notable places within walking distance.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily budget figure for either city, and the value rating is a national price level, identical for both by construction, so it says nothing about which of the two will cost more. Treat prices as an open question and check them yourself.
The sunshine figure is missing for both, since no nearby station records it, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured; the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Miami's warmest sea, 30°C in August, also falls in its wettest stretch, 242mm that month.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Miami: 1991-2020 normals, Miami International Airport (10 km from centre). Orlando: 1991-2020 normals, Orlando Airport (14.2 km from centre).
Miami is at its best from November to March, with highs of 25-28°C, sea at 25-27°C and rainfall of 47-90mm. June to September brings 32-33°C but heavy rain, 186-267mm a month, when the sea is warmest.
Orlando's strongest month is November, 26°C and its driest at 46mm, with February and March close behind at 24-26°C. Its summer months are wet as well, though less so than Miami's, so a family trip lands more comfortably outside the peak of summer.
Getting there
| Flying from | Miami | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 45 m €205-247 MIA · 7 km | 2 h 25 m €158-197 MCO · 14 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 55 m €143-193 MIA · 7 km | 2 h 35 m €157-165 MCO · 14 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 3 h 0 m €202-362 MIA · 7 km | 2 h 40 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 25 m €127-180 MIA · 7 km | 2 h 5 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| Punta CanaPUJ | 2 h 25 m no fares MIA · 7 km | 2 h 40 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 2 h 30 m €103-188 1 stop MIA · 7 km | 2 h 15 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| RaleighRDU | 2 h 0 m €156-181 MIA · 7 km | 1 h 40 m no fares MCO · 14 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 3 h 5 m €274-342 1 stop MIA · 7 km | 2 h 45 m €176-244 MCO · 14 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 9 h 0 m €550-628 1 stop MIA · 7 km | 8 h 50 m €483-548 1 stop MCO · 14 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 7 km | 15 h 20 m no fares MCO · 14 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 2026-08 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
| Measure | Miami | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 2 m | 34 m |
| Main airport | Miami International Airport (MIA)7 km from centre199 non-stop destinations | Orlando International Airport (MCO)14 km from centre169 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Miami | Orlando |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 442,241 | 334,854 |
| People per km² | 3,046 | 1,086 |
| Museums within 10 km | 17 | 11 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 39 | 30 |
| 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 Miami or Orlando somewhere new.