VacationSelector
The cathedral from Piazza del Duomo, Milan
MilanThe cathedral from Piazza del Duomo
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan

Photos: Milan by Jiuguang Wang, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped.

Milan or New York?

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 Milan for

  • day trips
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

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

Choose New York for

  • nightlife
  • beaches
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on New York’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. Milan 20, New York 50: New York leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. Milan 78, New York 92: New York leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Milan 78, New York 89: New York leads by 11 points.
Nightlife. Milan 66, New York 97: New York leads by 31 points.
Nature & outdoors. Milan 65, New York 55: Milan leads by 10 points.
Day trips. Milan 91, New York 68: Milan leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Milan 55, New York 70: New York leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Milan 79, New York 82: New York leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Milan 92, New York 97: New York leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Milan 33, New York 12: Milan leads by 21 points.
Live music & performing arts. Milan 82, New York 99: New York leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Milan and New York are level on 42.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Milan and New York.

Your match

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

Milan
65match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Milan in July

30 °Cdaytime high
20 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

New York in July

30 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
107 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150JFMAMJJASOND
MilanNew York

Where the figures come from

Milan 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.

Milan's sunshine is measured 41 km from the centre, at Novara / Cameri.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Milan: 1991-2020 normals, Milano / Linate (8 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureMilanNew York
Official languageItalian-
CurrencyEuro (EUR)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCFL230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation138 m25 m
Main airportMilan Malpensa International Airport (MXP)40 km from centre208 non-stop destinationsJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureMilanNew York
City population1,354,1968,804,190
People per km²7,4537,256
Museums within 10 km88157
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km42
Swim season, months above 21 °C-3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Milan or New York 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.