VacationSelector
The old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river, Tampa
TampaThe old Tampa Bay Hotel across the river
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Tampa by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Tampa 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 Tampa for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

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

Choose Vail for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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. Tampa 70, Vail 5: Tampa leads by 65 points.
Food & drink. Tampa 57, Vail 35: Tampa leads by 22 points.
Culture & sights. Tampa 42, Vail 10: Tampa leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Tampa 52, Vail 30: Tampa leads by 22 points.
Nature & outdoors. Tampa 55, Vail 92: Vail leads by 37 points.
Day trips. Tampa 54, Vail 45: Tampa leads by 9 points.
Good for families. Tampa 78, Vail 55: Tampa leads by 23 points.
Getting around. Tampa 22, Vail 62: Vail leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Tampa 40, Vail 35: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Affordability. Tampa 40, Vail 5: Tampa leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Tampa 47, Vail 42: Tampa leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Tampa 30, Vail 48: Vail leads by 18 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Tampa and Vail.

Your match

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

Tampa
Best match
49match

Wins on beaches and prices with your weighting.

Vail
39match

Wins on getting around and 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.

Tampa in July

32 °Cdaytime high
25 °Cnight-time low
197 mmrain in the month
9 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
14 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°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TampaVail

Where the figures come from

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. Tampa: 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (7.6 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTampaVail
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation30 m2,445 m
Main airportTampa International Airport (TPA)8 km from centre101 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureTampaVail
City population384,9594,835
People per km²848400
Museums within 10 km61
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C8 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Tampa or Vail 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.