VacationSelector
Mountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola, Telluride
TellurideMountain Village under snow, seen from the gondola
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Telluride by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Telluride or Wilmington?

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 Telluride for

  • getting around
  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness

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

Choose Wilmington for

  • beaches
  • prices
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Wilmington’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. Telluride 5, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Telluride 38, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 10 points.
Culture & sights. Telluride 20, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Nightlife. Telluride 20, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 20 points.
Nature & outdoors. Telluride 93, Wilmington 58: Telluride leads by 35 points.
Day trips. Telluride 30, Wilmington 45: Wilmington leads by 15 points.
Good for families. Telluride 45, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Telluride 66, Wilmington 28: Telluride leads by 38 points.
Shopping & style. Telluride 25, Wilmington 33: Wilmington leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Telluride 7, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 35 points.
Live music & performing arts. Telluride 35, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 5 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Telluride 45, Wilmington 33: Telluride leads by 12 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Telluride and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Telluride
36match

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

Wilmington
Best match
45match

Wins on beaches 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.

Telluride in July

23 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
58 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

Wilmington in July

32 °Cdaytime high
23 °Cnight-time low
174 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
27 °Csea
14 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
TellurideWilmington

Where the figures come from

Telluride 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. Telluride: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Telluride / Lime (8.2 km from centre). Wilmington: 1991-2020 normals, Wilmington / The Palms Mobile Home Park (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureTellurideWilmington
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-5, UTC-4 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,667 m9 m
Main airportMontrose Regional Airport (MTJ)64 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureTellurideWilmington
City population2,607115,451
People per km²1,372839
Museums within 10 km02
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-6 months

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Telluride or Wilmington 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. 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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.