VacationSelector
Ushuaia below snow-capped mountains, Ushuaia
UshuaiaUshuaia below snow-capped mountains
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain

Photos: Ushuaia by Jan Tang, Pexels License; Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped.

Ushuaia 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 Ushuaia for

  • prices
  • culture and sights
  • food and drink

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

Choose Vail for

  • live music and the arts
  • day trips
  • 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. Ushuaia 3, Vail 5: Vail leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Ushuaia 40, Vail 35: Ushuaia leads by 5 points.
Culture & sights. Ushuaia 22, Vail 10: Ushuaia leads by 12 points.
Nightlife. Ushuaia 18, Vail 30: Vail leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Ushuaia 88, Vail 92: Vail leads by 4 points.
Day trips. Ushuaia 14, Vail 45: Vail leads by 31 points.
Good for families. Ushuaia 40, Vail 55: Vail leads by 15 points.
Getting around. Ushuaia 45, Vail 62: Vail leads by 17 points.
Shopping & style. Ushuaia 22, Vail 35: Vail leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Ushuaia 42, Vail 5: Ushuaia leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Ushuaia 10, Vail 42: Vail leads by 32 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Ushuaia 26, Vail 48: Vail leads by 22 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Ushuaia and Vail.

Your match

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

Ushuaia
31match

Wins on prices and culture and sights with your weighting.

Vail
Best match
39match

Wins on live music and the arts 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.

Ushuaia in July

4 °Cdaytime high
0 °Cnight-time low
36 mmrain in the month
2 hsunshine a day
8 hdaylight a day

Vail in July

29 °Cdaytime high
9 °Cnight-time low
35 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

01020304050JFMAMJJASOND
UshuaiaVail

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. Ushuaia: 1991-2020 normals, Ushuaia Aerodrome (1 km from centre). Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureUshuaiaVail
Official languageSpanish-
CurrencyArgentine Peso (ARS)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsCI220 V, 50 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideLeftRight
Time zoneUTC-3UTC-7, UTC-6 in summer
Emergency number117 or 911911
Elevation23 m2,445 m
Main airportUshuaia - Malvinas Argentinas International Airport (USH)4 km from centre9 non-stop destinationsEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year16 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureUshuaiaVail
City population82,6154,835
People per km²3,592400
Museums within 10 km51
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Ushuaia 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. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). 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. Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. 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.