VacationSelector
Bell Rock outside Sedona, Sedona
SedonaBell Rock outside Sedona
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Sedona by dconvertini, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sedona or Wilmington?

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 Sedona for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • day trips

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • nightlife
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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. Sedona 16, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 57 points.
Food & drink. Sedona 33, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. Sedona 20, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Sedona 8, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 32 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sedona 93, Wilmington 58: Sedona leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Sedona 55, Wilmington 45: Sedona leads by 10 points.
Good for families. Sedona 42, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Getting around. Sedona 22, Wilmington 28: Wilmington leads by 6 points.
Shopping & style. Sedona 34, Wilmington 33: Sedona leads by 1 points.
Affordability. Sedona 18, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 24 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sedona 13, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 27 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sedona 82, Wilmington 33: Sedona leads by 49 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sedona and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Sedona
36match

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

Wilmington
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and nightlife with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Sedona in July

34 °Cdaytime high
21 °Cnight-time low
51 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
14 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SedonaWilmington

Where the figures come from

Sedona's station stands 153 m above the city centre, so the centre is likely a little warmer than the figures say.

Sedona 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. Sedona: 2009-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Sedona / West Sedona (1.3 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSedonaWilmington
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation1,319 m9 m
Main airportPhoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)160 km from centre149 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSedonaWilmington
City population9,684115,451
People per km²195839
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

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