VacationSelector
The skyline over the Schuylkill, Philadelphia
PhiladelphiaThe skyline over the Schuylkill
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Philadelphia by Trev W. Adams, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Philadelphia or Vail?

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 Philadelphia for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • prices

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

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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. Philadelphia 36, Vail 5: Philadelphia leads by 31 points.
Food & drink. Philadelphia 62, Vail 35: Philadelphia leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Philadelphia 72, Vail 10: Philadelphia leads by 62 points.
Nightlife. Philadelphia 55, Vail 30: Philadelphia leads by 25 points.
Nature & outdoors. Philadelphia 52, Vail 92: Vail leads by 40 points.
Day trips. Philadelphia 80, Vail 45: Philadelphia leads by 35 points.
Good for families. Philadelphia 68, Vail 55: Philadelphia leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Philadelphia 66, Vail 62: Philadelphia leads by 4 points.
Shopping & style. Philadelphia 57, Vail 35: Philadelphia leads by 22 points.
Affordability. Philadelphia 40, Vail 5: Philadelphia leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Philadelphia 72, Vail 42: Philadelphia leads by 30 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Philadelphia 26, Vail 48: Vail leads by 22 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Philadelphia and Vail.

Your match

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

Philadelphia
Best match
57match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

Vail
39match

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

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Philadelphia in July

31 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
PhiladelphiaVail

Where the figures come from

Vail's temperatures are measured 47 km from the centre, at Kremmling.

Vail's station stands 186 m below the city centre, so the centre is likely a little cooler than the figures say.

Vail 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. Philadelphia: 1991-2020 normals, Philadelphia International Airport (11.3 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasurePhiladelphiaVail
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
Elevation12 m2,445 m
Main airportPhiladelphia International Airport (PHL)11 km from centre129 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasurePhiladelphiaVail
City population1,603,7974,835
People per km²4,339400
Museums within 10 km541
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Philadelphia or Vail 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. 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.