VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New York or Quito?

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 New York for

  • live music and the arts
  • nightlife
  • shopping

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

Choose Quito for

  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Quito’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. New York 50, Quito 5: New York leads by 45 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Quito 54: New York leads by 38 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Quito 77: New York leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Quito 40: New York leads by 57 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Quito 86: Quito leads by 31 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Quito 55: New York leads by 13 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Quito 32: New York leads by 38 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Quito 45: New York leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Quito 40: New York leads by 57 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Quito 78: Quito leads by 66 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Quito 38: New York leads by 61 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Quito 44: Quito leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Quito.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on live music and the arts and nightlife with your weighting.

Quito
50match

Wins on prices 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.

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

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
No seasea
12 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkQuito

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkQuito
Official language-Spanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m2,850 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkQuito
City population8,804,1901,763,275
People per km²7,2564,735
Museums within 10 km15716
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km22
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Quito 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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. 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.