VacationSelector
The old railway depot in the snow, Steamboat Springs
Steamboat SpringsThe old railway depot in the snow
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Steamboat Springs by Jeffrey Beall, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Steamboat Springs 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 Steamboat Springs for

  • wellness
  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • day trips
  • culture and sights

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. Steamboat Springs 7, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 66 points.
Food & drink. Steamboat Springs 30, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 18 points.
Culture & sights. Steamboat Springs 14, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 26 points.
Nightlife. Steamboat Springs 20, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Steamboat Springs 88, Wilmington 58: Steamboat Springs leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Steamboat Springs 12, Wilmington 45: Wilmington leads by 33 points.
Good for families. Steamboat Springs and Wilmington are level on 62.
Getting around. Steamboat Springs 46, Wilmington 28: Steamboat Springs leads by 18 points.
Shopping & style. Steamboat Springs 22, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 11 points.
Affordability. Steamboat Springs 17, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Steamboat Springs 28, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 12 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Steamboat Springs 70, Wilmington 33: Steamboat Springs leads by 37 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Steamboat Springs and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Steamboat Springs
35match

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

Wilmington
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Steamboat Springs in July

28 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
31 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
Steamboat SpringsWilmington

Where the figures come from

Steamboat Springs 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. Steamboat Springs: 2011-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Steamboat Springs / Steamboat Ii (5.5 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSteamboat SpringsWilmington
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,052 m9 m
Main airportYampa Valley Airport (HDN)33 km from centre17 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureSteamboat SpringsWilmington
City population13,224115,451
People per km²503839
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 Steamboat Springs 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.