VacationSelector
The city from Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavik
ReykjavikThe city from Hallgrímskirkja
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Reykjavik by Atlantic Ambience, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Reykjavik 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 Reykjavik for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

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

Choose Vail for

  • day trips
  • shopping
  • getting around

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. Reykjavik 12, Vail 5: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Food & drink. Reykjavik 42, Vail 35: Reykjavik leads by 7 points.
Culture & sights. Reykjavik 25, Vail 10: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Nightlife. Reykjavik 45, Vail 30: Reykjavik leads by 15 points.
Nature & outdoors. Reykjavik and Vail are level on 92.
Day trips. Reykjavik 35, Vail 45: Vail leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Reykjavik and Vail are level on 55.
Getting around. Reykjavik 55, Vail 62: Vail leads by 7 points.
Shopping & style. Reykjavik 25, Vail 35: Vail leads by 10 points.
Affordability. Reykjavik 6, Vail 5: Reykjavik leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Reykjavik 45, Vail 42: Reykjavik leads by 3 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Reykjavik 88, Vail 48: Reykjavik leads by 40 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Reykjavik and Vail.

Your match

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

Reykjavik
Best match
44match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on day trips and shopping with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Reykjavik in July

15 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
50 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
11 °Csea
20 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

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

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

020406080100JFMAMJJASOND
ReykjavikVail

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. Reykjavik: 1991-2020 normals, Reykjavik (2.3 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureReykjavikVail
Official languageIcelandic-
CurrencyIceland Krona (ISK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTCUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation8 m2,445 m
Main airportKeflavik International Airport (KEF)37 km from centre88 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureReykjavikVail
City population138,7724,835
People per km²569400
Museums within 10 km231
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Reykjavik 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. 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.