VacationSelector
The church of San Francisco under a blue sky, Quito
QuitoThe church of San Francisco under a blue sky
The Assembly Hall on Temple Square, Salt Lake City
Salt Lake CityThe Assembly Hall on Temple Square

Photos: Quito by Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Salt Lake City by hakkun, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped.

Quito 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 Quito for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • day trips

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

Choose Salt Lake City for

  • families
  • live music and the arts
  • beaches

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. Quito 5, Salt Lake City 12: Salt Lake City leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Quito 54, Salt Lake City 40: Quito leads by 14 points.
Culture & sights. Quito 77, Salt Lake City 42: Quito leads by 35 points.
Nightlife. Quito 40, Salt Lake City 30: Quito leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Quito 86, Salt Lake City 90: Salt Lake City leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Quito 55, Salt Lake City 34: Quito leads by 21 points.
Good for families. Quito 32, Salt Lake City 72: Salt Lake City leads by 40 points.
Getting around. Quito 45, Salt Lake City 42: Quito leads by 3 points.
Shopping & style. Quito 40, Salt Lake City 36: Quito leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Quito 78, Salt Lake City 40: Quito leads by 38 points.
Live music & performing arts. Quito 38, Salt Lake City 55: Salt Lake City leads by 17 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Quito 44, Salt Lake City 38: Quito leads by 6 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Quito and Salt Lake City.

Your match

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

Quito
Best match
50match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Salt Lake City
44match

Wins on families 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.

Quito in July

18 °Cdaytime high
5 °Cnight-time low
32 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
12 hdaylight a day

Salt Lake City in July

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

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
QuitoSalt Lake City

Where the figures come from

Quito's station stands 208 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Quito: 1961-1990 normals, Izobamba-Santa Catalina (16.8 km from centre). Salt Lake City: 1991-2020 normals, Salt Lake City International Airport (7.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureQuitoSalt Lake City
Official languageSpanish, Shuar, Northern Quichua-
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,850 m1,288 m
Main airportMariscal Sucre International Airport (UIO)20 km from centre22 non-stop destinationsSalt Lake City International Airport (SLC)9 km from centre108 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureQuitoSalt Lake City
City population1,763,275199,723
People per km²4,735690
Museums within 10 km1612
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Quito 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. 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.