VacationSelector
The Space Needle behind Pier 70, Seattle
SeattleThe Space Needle behind Pier 70
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola

Photos: Seattle by Caio, Pexels License; Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Seattle or Telluride?

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 Seattle for

  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Telluride for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Telluride’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. Seattle 30, Telluride 5: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Food & drink. Seattle 66, Telluride 38: Seattle leads by 28 points.
Culture & sights. Seattle 50, Telluride 20: Seattle leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Seattle 55, Telluride 20: Seattle leads by 35 points.
Nature & outdoors. Seattle 87, Telluride 93: Telluride leads by 6 points.
Day trips. Seattle 55, Telluride 30: Seattle leads by 25 points.
Good for families. Seattle 64, Telluride 45: Seattle leads by 19 points.
Getting around. Seattle 60, Telluride 66: Telluride leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Seattle 52, Telluride 25: Seattle leads by 27 points.
Affordability. Seattle 22, Telluride 7: Seattle leads by 15 points.
Live music & performing arts. Seattle 70, Telluride 35: Seattle leads by 35 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Seattle 40, Telluride 45: Telluride leads by 5 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Seattle and Telluride.

Your match

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

Seattle
Best match
54match

Wins on nightlife and live music and the arts with your weighting.

Telluride
36match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Seattle in July

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

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°5°10°15°20°25°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200JFMAMJJASOND
SeattleTelluride

Where the figures come from

Telluride 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. Seattle: 1991-2020 normals, Seattle-Tacoma Airport (17.3 km from centre). Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSeattleTelluride
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-8, UTC-7 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation40 m2,667 m
Main airportSeattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA)18 km from centre135 non-stop destinationsMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureSeattleTelluride
City population737,0152,607
People per km²1,9961,372
Museums within 10 km270
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Seattle or Telluride 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). 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.