New York or Philadelphia?
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 nightlife with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and year-round weather 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 New York if you want the widest choice of restaurants and late-night places, more to see within walking distance of the centre, and access to the coast: 17 beaches nearby and sea warm enough to swim in by late summer.
Choose Philadelphia if you want a compact museum quarter and greener surroundings, with 14% of the land around it protected.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 64 points.64
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 0 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 0 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 1 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 13 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | — |
Places to eat. New York leads by 18 points.18
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 77 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 6,032 | 1,714 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 35 |
Museums & heritage. New York and Philadelphia are level on 60.
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 119 | 89 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 31 | 48 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 26 | 54 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. New York leads by 30 points.30
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 59 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 4,159 | 930 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,015 | 575 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 48 | 62 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 192 | 41 |
Nature & day trips. Philadelphia leads by 10 points.10
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 49 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 14 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 69 | 89 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 75 hectares |
Good for families. New York leads by 19 points.19
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 53 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 16 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 75 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 4 |
Sights concentration. New York leads by 20 points.20
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 54 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 268 | 88 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. New York and Philadelphia are level on 43.
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Philadelphia leads by 2 points.2
| New York | Philadelphia | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 60 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C | 5.2 °C to 31 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 74 mm to 112 mm | 69 mm to 112 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
New York has about three times as many restaurants near the centre and many times as many bars and clubs, so nights out stretch further; about half of that drinking scene sits near the centre. It also has about three times as many notable places within walking distance of the centre, 17 beaches nearby against Philadelphia's 1, and sea reaching 23°C in August.
Philadelphia's counterweight is outside the city: 14% of the surrounding land is protected against 4% around New York, better ground for day trips into countryside.
Where they are alike
Museums are where the two land closest. New York holds somewhat more and has 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against Philadelphia's 1, but Philadelphia's sit more tightly around the centre, so a museum weekend works in either.
Their weather years also run in parallel: daytime highs of about 5-30°C from winter to summer in both, and no month in either that drops to 40mm of rain or less. The range of kitchens on offer is similar too.
Which traveller are you?
If eating out and late nights decide your trip, New York: about three times as many restaurants near the centre and many more bars and clubs, spread across neighbourhoods rather than concentrated in one central cluster.
Travelling with children, New York again: about twice as many attractions and park space near the centre, 7 theme parks within reach against 4, and 17 beaches nearby for a summer swim.
If you want green space and short trips out, Philadelphia: 14% of the land around it is protected, and its museums cluster tightly enough that a car-free weekend of walking between them works.
What the numbers don't tell you
No cost comparison is possible here. The dataset carries no daily budget for either city, and the value figure behind both is a national price level, identical for the two by construction, so it tells you nothing about which trip costs more. Judge them on what they offer and price the trip yourself.
Sunshine hours are not recorded near New York, so that side of the weather comparison is unmeasured; its monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. And 17 beaches nearby is a summer fact: the sea reaches 21°C or more in only three months, when those beaches are at their busiest.
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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre).
New York is at its best in June and September, with highs of 27°C and 25°C and the sea at 21-23°C in late summer, the only window when swimming works. Rainfall barely varies, so pick on warmth rather than dryness.
Philadelphia peaks earlier, in May, at 24°C with 86mm of rain, its driest good month. July reaches 31°C, warmer than New York gets, and September turns wet at 112mm, so spring suits it better than early autumn.
Getting there
| Flying from | New York | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 5 m €236-237 LGA · 13 km | 1 h 55 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 2 h 5 m €165-236 EWR · 14 km | 1 h 55 m €60-108 PHL · 11 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 1 h 0 m €193-222 JFK · 21 km | 1 h 10 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| HoustonIAH, HOU | 3 h 20 m €254-372 1 stop LGA · 13 km | 3 h 10 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| RaleighRDU | 1 h 30 m €201-279 1 stop LGA · 13 km | 1 h 20 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| DetroitDTW, DET, YIP | 1 h 35 m €193-276 1 stop EWR · 14 km | 1 h 30 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 140 km |
| San JuanSJU, SIG | 3 h 45 m €202-272 1 stop EWR · 14 km | 3 h 40 m €120-131 PHL · 11 km |
| DublinDUB | 6 h 40 m €391-493 JFK · 21 km | 6 h 50 m no fares PHL · 11 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 11 h 25 m €622-836 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 11 h 25 m €622-836 1 stop JFK · 140 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 | New York | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | 25 m | 12 m |
| Main airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 non-stop destinations | Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre128 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 12 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | New York | Philadelphia |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,804,190 | 1,603,797 |
| People per km² | 7,256 | 4,339 |
| Museums within 10 km | 157 | 54 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 132 | 75 |
| 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 New York or Philadelphia somewhere new.