VacationSelector
Palm Springs
The Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower, Shanghai
ShanghaiThe Oriental Pearl Tower and Shanghai Tower

Photos: Shanghai by xiquinhosilva, CC BY 2.0, cropped.

Palm Springs or Shanghai?

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

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Shanghai for

  • getting around
  • day trips
  • food and drink

What lies behind each score is written up on Shanghai’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, Shanghai 10: Shanghai leads by 3 points.
Food & drink. Palm Springs 40, Shanghai 88: Shanghai leads by 48 points.
Culture & sights. Palm Springs 42, Shanghai 72: Shanghai leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Palm Springs 36, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 44 points.
Nature & outdoors. Palm Springs 78, Shanghai 25: Palm Springs leads by 53 points.
Day trips. Palm Springs 38, Shanghai 90: Shanghai leads by 52 points.
Good for families. Palm Springs 40, Shanghai 80: Shanghai leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Palm Springs 22, Shanghai 85: Shanghai leads by 63 points.
Shopping & style. Palm Springs 44, Shanghai 82: Shanghai leads by 38 points.
Affordability. Palm Springs 32, Shanghai 55: Shanghai leads by 23 points.
Live music & performing arts. Palm Springs 40, Shanghai 66: Shanghai leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Palm Springs 80, Shanghai 55: Palm Springs leads by 25 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Palm Springs and Shanghai.

Your match

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

Palm Springs
42match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

Shanghai
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and day trips 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 recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Shanghai in July

33 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
151 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
26 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°50°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Palm SpringsShanghai

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). Shanghai: 1991-2020 normals, Shanghai / Hongqiao (8.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePalm SpringsShanghai
Official language-Putonghua
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Yuan Renminbi (CNY)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzACI220 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC+8
Emergency number911Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119
Elevation146 m4 m
Main airportPalm Springs International Airport (PSP)2 km from centre29 non-stop destinationsShanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG)33 km from centre207 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days6 days

By the numbers

MeasurePalm SpringsShanghai
City population44,57524,870,895
People per km²1813,922
Museums within 10 km345
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-5 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Palm Springs or Shanghai 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.