VacationSelector
Palm Springs
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70

Photos: Seattle by Caio, Pexels License.

Palm Springs or Seattle?

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 Palm Springs for

  • wellness
  • prices

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

Choose Seattle for

  • getting around
  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Seattle’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. Palm Springs 7, Seattle 30: Seattle leads by 23 points.
Food & drink. Palm Springs 40, Seattle 66: Seattle leads by 26 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Springs 42, Seattle 50: Seattle leads by 8 points.
Nightlife. Palm Springs 36, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 19 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Springs 78, Seattle 87: Seattle leads by 9 points.
Day trips. Palm Springs 38, Seattle 55: Seattle leads by 17 points.
Good for families. Palm Springs 40, Seattle 64: Seattle leads by 24 points.
Getting around. Palm Springs 22, Seattle 60: Seattle leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Springs 44, Seattle 52: Seattle leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Palm Springs 32, Seattle 22: Palm Springs leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Springs 40, Seattle 70: Seattle leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Springs 80, Seattle 40: Palm Springs leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Springs and Seattle.

Your match

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

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on wellness and prices with your weighting.

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on getting around and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Palm Springs in July

42 °Cdaytime high
28 °Cnight-time low
5 mmrain in the month
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Seattle in July

25 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
15 mmrain in the month
12 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
Palm SpringsSeattle

Where the figures come from

Palm Springs 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.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Palm Springs: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Palm Springs (2.3 km from centre). Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm SpringsSeattle
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation146 m40 m
Main airportPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm SpringsSeattle
City population44,575737,015
People per km²1811,996
Museums within 10 km327
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palm Springs or Seattle 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). 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.