VacationSelector
The top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain, Vail
VailThe top of the Mountaintop Express lift on Vail Mountain
The Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge, Wilmington
WilmingtonThe Riverwalk and the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge

Photos: Vail by DReifGalaxyM31, CC BY 3.0, cropped; Wilmington by Unexpected Snacks, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped.

Vail 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 Vail for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • getting around
  • wellness

What lies behind each score is written up on Vail’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. Vail 5, Wilmington 73: Wilmington leads by 68 points.
Food & drink. Vail 35, Wilmington 48: Wilmington leads by 13 points.
Culture & sights. Vail 10, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 30 points.
Nightlife. Vail 30, Wilmington 40: Wilmington leads by 10 points.
Nature & outdoors. Vail 92, Wilmington 58: Vail leads by 34 points.
Day trips. Vail and Wilmington are level on 45.
Good for families. Vail 55, Wilmington 62: Wilmington leads by 7 points.
Getting around. Vail 62, Wilmington 28: Vail leads by 34 points.
Shopping & style. Vail 35, Wilmington 33: Vail leads by 2 points.
Affordability. Vail 5, Wilmington 42: Wilmington leads by 37 points.
Live music & performing arts. Vail 42, Wilmington 40: Vail leads by 2 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Vail 48, Wilmington 33: Vail leads by 15 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Vail and Wilmington.

Your match

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

Vail
39match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and getting around 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.

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

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

-10°0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

050100150200250JFMAMJJASOND
VailWilmington

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

Before you go

MeasureVailWilmington
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
Elevation2,445 m9 m
Main airportEagle County Regional Airport (EGE)48 km from centre16 non-stop destinationsWilmington International Airport (ILM)5 km from centre25 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days14 days

By the numbers

MeasureVailWilmington
City population4,835115,451
People per km²400839
Museums within 10 km12
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 Vail 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.