VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Stockholm 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 Stockholm for

  • culture and sights
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors

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. Stockholm 40, Vail 5: Stockholm leads by 35 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Vail 35: Stockholm leads by 29 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Vail 10: Stockholm leads by 67 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm 57, Vail 30: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Vail 92: Vail leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Vail 45: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Vail 55: Stockholm leads by 27 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Vail 62: Stockholm leads by 22 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Vail 35: Stockholm leads by 35 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Vail 5: Stockholm leads by 25 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Vail 42: Stockholm leads by 23 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Vail 48: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Stockholm and Vail.

Your match

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

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on culture and sights and beaches with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Stockholm in July

23 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
65 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
18 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

020406080JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmVail

Where the figures come from

Stockholm 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.

Stockholm's sunshine is measured 26 km from the centre, at Stockholm Observatoriet.

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. Stockholm: 2003-2020 (sunshine 1991-2020, rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Stockholm Bromma Airport (7.1 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmVail
Official languageSwedish-
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m2,445 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmVail
City population984,7484,835
People per km²5,260400
Museums within 10 km2661
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Vail somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Ground elevations sampled from the Mapzen terrain tiles via OpenTopoData, merging SRTM, ASTER, NED, EU-DEM and national 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.