VacationSelector
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain
Gastown, Vancouver
VancouverGastown

Photos: Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Vancouver by Xicotencatl, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Vail or Vancouver?

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 Vail for

Vail does not lead in any category we score.

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

Choose Vancouver for

  • beaches
  • food and drink
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on Vancouver’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. Vail 5, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Food & drink. Vail 35, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Vail 10, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 32 points.
Nightlife. Vail 30, Vancouver 42: Vancouver leads by 12 points.
Nature & outdoors. Vail 92, Vancouver 97: Vancouver leads by 5 points.
Day trips. Vail and Vancouver are level on 45.
Good for families. Vail 55, Vancouver 72: Vancouver leads by 17 points.
Getting around. Vail 62, Vancouver 73: Vancouver leads by 11 points.
Shopping & style. Vail 35, Vancouver 55: Vancouver leads by 20 points.
Affordability. Vail 5, Vancouver 27: Vancouver leads by 22 points.
Live music & performing arts. Vail 42, Vancouver 52: Vancouver leads by 10 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Vail 48, Vancouver 50: Vancouver leads by 2 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Vail and Vancouver.

Your match

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

Vail
39match

Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.

Vancouver
Best match
56match

Wins on beaches and food and drink with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

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

Vancouver in July

23 °Cdaytime high
15 °Cnight-time low
42 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
16 °Csea
16 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
VailVancouver

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. Vail: 2006-2025 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Kremmling (46.5 km from centre). Vancouver: 1991-2020 normals, Vancouver Harbour CS (4.4 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureVailVancouver
Official language-French, English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Canadian Dollar (CAD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,445 m2 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsVancouver International Airport (YVR)9 km from centre109 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days11 days

By the numbers

MeasureVailVancouver
City population4,835662,248
People per km²4005,759
Museums within 10 km126
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Vail or Vancouver 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.