Tampa or Fort Lauderdale?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Too close to call, 1 point apart
Wins on sights concentration and good for families with your weighting.
Wins on nature & day trips and beaches & swimming with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Fort Lauderdale if you want the water and the open country: the sea starts at the centre and stays warm enough to swim in all twelve months, with a fifth of the surrounding land protected.
Choose Tampa if you want a city you can walk: far more to see on foot near the centre, a wider range of kitchens, and five theme parks within reach.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Fort Lauderdale leads by 9 points.9
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 84 |
| Swim season months | 8 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 10 | 7 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 0 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 0 km |
Places to eat. Tampa leads by 9 points.9
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 54 | 45 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 359 | 371 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 31 | 18 |
Museums & heritage. Tampa leads by 7 points.7
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 27 | 20 |
| Museums within 10 km | 13 | 14 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 10 | 6 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 77 | 43 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
Nightlife. Tampa leads by 5 points.5
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 34 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 324 | 259 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 227 | 144 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 70 | 56 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 26 | 18 |
Nature & day trips. Fort Lauderdale leads by 51 points.51
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 81 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 20 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 72 | 51 |
| Park area within 2 km | 39 hectares | 45 hectares |
Good for families. Tampa leads by 11 points.11
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 30 | 19 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 3 | 2 |
| Park area within 2 km | 39 hectares | 45 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 5 | 0 |
Sights concentration. Tampa leads by 21 points.21
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 21 | 0 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 13 | 2 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Tampa and Fort Lauderdale are level on 43.
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Fort Lauderdale leads by 1 points.1
| Tampa | Fort Lauderdale | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 75 | 76 |
| Monthly daytime high | 21.5 °C to 32.6 °C | 24.2 °C to 32.3 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 36 mm to 228 mm | 55 mm to 219 mm |
| Dry months | 1 | 0 |
Where they differ
Fort Lauderdale suits time outdoors. The sea is 0km from the centre and holds 21°C or more in 12 months, where Tampa manages 8, so winter swimming works. 20% of the land around it is protected against 6% near Tampa, and it has more park space near the centre.
Tampa is the better city on foot: many times more notable places within walking distance, about twice as many attractions near the centre, 5 theme parks within reach where Fort Lauderdale has none, and a wider range of kitchens.
Where they are alike
The weather is much the same story in both. Daytime highs run 24-32°C in Fort Lauderdale and 22-33°C in Tampa, August is the warmest month in each, and the sea reaches 30°C there in both.
They are close on eating out, museums and nights out too: a similar number of restaurants near the centre, a similar museum count with no UNESCO-listed place within day-trip reach of either, and modest, comparable drinking and club scenes.
Which traveller are you?
Families with young children should take Tampa: five theme parks within reach, about twice as many tourist attractions near the centre, and beaches close by, where Fort Lauderdale has no theme parks at all.
Anyone whose trip is built around water and open country wants Fort Lauderdale: the sea at the centre, 21°C or warmer in every month of the year, a fifth of the surrounding land protected and more park space close in.
A traveller who wants to walk between sights, eat across different kitchens and end the evening late will do better in Tampa, where the notable places, the variety of restaurants and most of the bars and clubs sit near the centre.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information. Both sit at the same national price level by construction, and the dataset holds no daily budget figure for either, so nothing here tells you which trip costs more. Treat cost as an open question and price it yourself.
The weather picture is also incomplete: no station near Fort Lauderdale records sunshine hours, so that side of the comparison is unmeasured rather than poor. And the warmest water, 30°C in August in both, arrives in the wettest weeks, when Fort Lauderdale sees 198mm and Tampa 228mm, so peak swimming season is also peak rain.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre). Fort Lauderdale: 1991-2020 normals, Fort Lauderdale (7.1 km from centre).
Fort Lauderdale is at its best from December to March: highs of 24-27°C, rainfall near 55mm and a sea that never drops below 25°C, so swimming works all winter. Rain then builds from May, at 144-219mm a month.
Tampa's windows are March to April and November, with highs of 25-28°C in spring and just 36mm in November. Its sea sits at 18-20°C in midwinter, too cool for swimming, and the summer peak reaches 228mm.
Getting there
| Flying from | Tampa | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 35 m €178-237 1 stop TPA · 8 km | 2 h 40 m €140-271 1 stop FLL · 7 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 2 h 45 m no fares TPA · 8 km | 3 h 0 m €167-168 FLL · 7 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 2 h 35 m €176-204 1 stop TPA · 8 km | 2 h 55 m €119-159 FLL · 7 km |
| PhiladelphiaPHL, TTN | 2 h 25 m €95-125 1 stop TPA · 8 km | 2 h 35 m €125-184 FLL · 7 km |
| WashingtonIAD, DCA | 2 h 10 m no fares TPA · 8 km | 2 h 25 m €164-177 FLL · 7 km |
| CincinnatiCVG, LUK | 2 h 10 m no fares TPA · 8 km | 2 h 25 m no fares FLL · 7 km |
| RaleighRDU | 1 h 45 m no fares TPA · 8 km | 2 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km |
| NassauNAS | 1 h 20 m no fares TPA · 8 km | 1 h 0 m no fares FLL · 7 km |
| MadridMAD | 8 h 55 m no fares MCO · 125 km | 9 h 0 m €522-631 1 stop MIA · 41 km |
| DubaiDXB, DWC | 15 h 20 m no fares MCO · 125 km | 15 h 30 m €891-1074 2 stops MIA · 41 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Tampa | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 30 m | 11 m |
| Main airport | Tampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre99 non-stop destinations | Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)7 km from centre125 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Tampa | Fort Lauderdale |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 384,959 | 182,760 |
| People per km² | 848 | 1,829 |
| Museums within 10 km | 6 | 6 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 0 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 47 | 25 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 8 months | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tampa or Fort Lauderdale somewhere new.