VacationSelector
St. Petersburg, Florida
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

St. Petersburg, Florida or Washington DC?

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 St. Petersburg, Florida for

  • beaches
  • wellness
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on St. Petersburg, Florida’s own page.

Choose Washington DC for

  • getting around
  • culture and sights
  • live music and the arts

What lies behind each score is written up on Washington DC’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. St. Petersburg, Florida 85, Washington DC 12: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 73 points.
Food & drink. St. Petersburg, Florida 52, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 15 points.
Culture & sights. St. Petersburg, Florida 52, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. St. Petersburg, Florida 44, Washington DC 57: Washington DC leads by 13 points.
Nature & outdoors. St. Petersburg, Florida 58, Washington DC 64: Washington DC leads by 6 points.
Day trips. St. Petersburg, Florida 55, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 18 points.
Good for families. St. Petersburg, Florida 70, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 3 points.
Getting around. St. Petersburg, Florida 33, Washington DC 72: Washington DC leads by 39 points.
Shopping & style. St. Petersburg, Florida 38, Washington DC 52: Washington DC leads by 14 points.
Affordability. St. Petersburg, Florida 35, Washington DC 28: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 7 points.
Live music & performing arts. St. Petersburg, Florida 42, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 25 points.
Wellness & relaxation. St. Petersburg, Florida 40, Washington DC 26: St. Petersburg, Florida leads by 14 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: St. Petersburg, Florida and Washington DC.

Your match

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

St. Petersburg, Florida
50match

Wins on beaches and wellness with your weighting.

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on getting around and culture and sights with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

St. Petersburg, Florida in July

32 °Cdaytime high
26 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
St. Petersburg, FloridaWashington DC

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. St. Petersburg, Florida: 1998-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Saint Petersburg (1.6 km from centre). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSt. Petersburg, FloridaWashington DC
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation134 m72 m
Main airportSt. Petersburg Clearwater International Airport (PIE)16 km from centre60 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSt. Petersburg, FloridaWashington DC
City population258,308689,545
People per km²7253,896
Museums within 10 km1398
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow St. Petersburg, Florida or Washington DC 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.