VacationSelector
Stortorget in Gamla stan, Stockholm
StockholmStortorget in Gamla stan
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol

Photos: Stockholm by Jorge Franganillo, CC BY 2.0, cropped; Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License.

Stockholm 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 Stockholm for

  • wellness
  • beaches
  • shopping

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

Choose Washington DC for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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. Stockholm 40, Washington DC 12: Stockholm leads by 28 points.
Food & drink. Stockholm 64, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 3 points.
Culture & sights. Stockholm 77, Washington DC 84: Washington DC leads by 7 points.
Nightlife. Stockholm and Washington DC are level on 57.
Nature & outdoors. Stockholm 72, Washington DC 64: Stockholm leads by 8 points.
Day trips. Stockholm 68, Washington DC 73: Washington DC leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Stockholm 82, Washington DC 73: Stockholm leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Stockholm 84, Washington DC 72: Stockholm leads by 12 points.
Shopping & style. Stockholm 70, Washington DC 52: Stockholm leads by 18 points.
Affordability. Stockholm 30, Washington DC 28: Stockholm leads by 2 points.
Live music & performing arts. Stockholm 65, Washington DC 67: Washington DC leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Stockholm 56, Washington DC 26: Stockholm leads by 30 points.
0255075100

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

Your match

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

Stockholm
Best match
64match

Wins on wellness and beaches with your weighting.

Washington DC
56match

Wins on culture and sights 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.

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

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

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
StockholmWashington DC

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.

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). Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureStockholmWashington DC
Official languageSwedish-
CurrencySwedish Krona (SEK)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number112911
Elevation22 m72 m
Main airportStockholm-Arlanda Airport (ARN)36 km from centre174 non-stop destinationsRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureStockholmWashington DC
City population984,748689,545
People per km²5,2603,896
Museums within 10 km26698
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km30
Swim season, months above 21 °CNone3 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Stockholm or Washington DC 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 2026-10-31. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.