VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

New York or Salt Lake City?

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

  • nightlife
  • shopping
  • food and drink

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • prices
  • families

What lies behind each score is written up on Salt Lake City’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, Salt Lake City 12: New York leads by 38 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, Salt Lake City 40: New York leads by 52 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, Salt Lake City 42: New York leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, Salt Lake City 30: New York leads by 67 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 35 points.
Day trips. New York 68, Salt Lake City 34: New York leads by 34 points.
Good for families. New York 70, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 2 points.
Getting around. New York 82, Salt Lake City 42: New York leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, Salt Lake City 36: New York leads by 61 points.
Affordability. New York 12, Salt Lake City 40: Salt Lake City leads by 28 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, Salt Lake City 55: New York leads by 44 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, Salt Lake City 38: New York leads by 4 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: New York and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

New York
Best match
71match

Wins on nightlife and shopping with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and prices 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
22 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Salt Lake City in July

34 °Cdaytime high
19 °Cnight-time low
13 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkSalt Lake City

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkSalt Lake City
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m1,288 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkSalt Lake City
City population8,804,190199,723
People per km²7,256690
Museums within 10 km15712
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
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 Salt Lake City 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.