VacationSelector
The Opera House from the water, Sydney
SydneyThe Opera House from the water
Palms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue, West Palm Beach
West Palm BeachPalms at CityPlace on Rosemary Avenue

Photos: Sydney by Bernard Spragg, CC0; West Palm Beach by Michael Rivera, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Sydney or West Palm Beach?

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 Sydney for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • live music and the arts

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

Choose West Palm Beach for

  • day trips
  • prices

What lies behind each score is written up on West Palm Beach’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. Sydney 95, West Palm Beach 80: Sydney leads by 15 points.
Food & drink. Sydney 77, West Palm Beach 52: Sydney leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Sydney 60, West Palm Beach 42: Sydney leads by 18 points.
Nightlife. Sydney 60, West Palm Beach 36: Sydney leads by 24 points.
Nature & outdoors. Sydney 85, West Palm Beach 58: Sydney leads by 27 points.
Day trips. Sydney 50, West Palm Beach 55: West Palm Beach leads by 5 points.
Good for families. Sydney 75, West Palm Beach 66: Sydney leads by 9 points.
Getting around. Sydney 75, West Palm Beach 38: Sydney leads by 37 points.
Shopping & style. Sydney 68, West Palm Beach 64: Sydney leads by 4 points.
Affordability. Sydney 22, West Palm Beach 23: West Palm Beach leads by 1 points.
Live music & performing arts. Sydney 73, West Palm Beach 47: Sydney leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Sydney 55, West Palm Beach 44: Sydney leads by 11 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Sydney and West Palm Beach.

Your match

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

Sydney
Best match
66match

Wins on getting around and nature and the outdoors with your weighting.

West Palm Beach
50match

Wins on day trips and prices with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Sydney in July

18 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
70 mmrain in the month
7 hsunshine a day
19 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

West Palm Beach in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
145 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
29 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
SydneyWest Palm Beach

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Sydney: 1991-2020 normals, Sydney Airport (3.7 km from centre). West Palm Beach: 1991-2020 normals, Palm Beach International (5.8 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureSydneyWest Palm Beach
Official languageEnglish-
CurrencyAustralian Dollar (AUD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsI230 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC+10, UTC+11 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number000911
Elevation6 m6 m
Main airportSydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)9 km from centre99 non-stop destinationsPresident Donald J. Trump International Airport (DJT)6 km from centre42 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureSydneyWest Palm Beach
City population5,450,496117,415
People per km²449786
Museums within 10 km384
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km20
Swim season, months above 21 °C6 months12 months

Where else could you go?

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