VacationSelector
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan, New York
New YorkBrooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: New York by Jakub Hałun, CC BY 4.0, cropped; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

New York or West Palm Beach?

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
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • nature and the outdoors

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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, West Palm Beach 80: West Palm Beach leads by 30 points.
Food & drink. New York 92, West Palm Beach 52: New York leads by 40 points.
Culture & sights. New York 89, West Palm Beach 42: New York leads by 47 points.
Nightlife. New York 97, West Palm Beach 36: New York leads by 61 points.
Nature & outdoors. New York 55, West Palm Beach 58: West Palm Beach leads by 3 points.
Day trips. New York 68, West Palm Beach 55: New York leads by 13 points.
Good for families. New York 70, West Palm Beach 66: New York leads by 4 points.
Getting around. New York 82, West Palm Beach 38: New York leads by 44 points.
Shopping & style. New York 97, West Palm Beach 64: New York leads by 33 points.
Affordability. New York 12, West Palm Beach 23: West Palm Beach leads by 11 points.
Live music & performing arts. New York 99, West Palm Beach 47: New York leads by 52 points.
Wellness & relaxation. New York 42, West Palm Beach 44: West Palm Beach 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 West Palm Beach.

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 live music and the arts with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on beaches 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

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
New YorkWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureNew YorkWest Palm Beach
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation25 m6 m
Main airportJohn F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre189 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureNew YorkWest Palm Beach
City population8,804,190117,415
People per km²7,256786
Museums within 10 km1574
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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