Washington DC or New York?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on year-round weather and nature & day trips with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and good for families with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose New York if you want the wider choice of places to eat and to go out, plenty for children, and water close at hand: the sea is 1km from the centre, with 17 beaches nearby.
Choose Washington DC if you would rather have a compact museum core, more protected countryside around the city for day trips, and days that run slightly warmer through the year.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 46 points.46
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 18 | 64 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 3 |
| Beaches 10 km | 1 | 17 |
| Coast distance | 34 km | 1 km |
| Water distance | 34 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. New York leads by 18 points.18
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 77 | 95 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 1,666 | 6,032 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 36 | 38 |
Museums & heritage. New York leads by 5 points.5
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 60 |
| Museums within 10 km | 83 | 119 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 55 | 31 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 66 | 26 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 0 | 2 |
Nightlife. New York leads by 28 points.28
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 61 | 89 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,029 | 4,159 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 593 | 2,015 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 58 | 48 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 54 | 192 |
Nature & day trips. Washington DC leads by 3 points.3
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 42 | 39 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 10 | 4 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 1 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 94 | 69 |
| Park area within 2 km | 96 hectares | 134 hectares |
Good for families. New York leads by 34 points.34
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 72 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 7 | 37 |
| Park area within 2 km | 96 hectares | 134 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 1 | 7 |
Sights concentration. Washington DC leads by 2 points.2
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 76 | 74 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 305 | 268 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Washington DC and New York are level on 43.
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Washington DC leads by 4 points.4
| Washington DC | New York | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 58 |
| Monthly daytime high | 7 °C to 31.7 °C | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 65 mm to 108 mm | 74 mm to 112 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
New York has about three times as many restaurants near the centre, many times as many places to drink and about three times as many nightclubs. It also has far more tourist attractions near the centre and 7 theme parks within reach against 1. The sea is 1km from its centre against 34km for Washington DC, with 17 beaches nearby.
Washington DC keeps its museums tightly around the centre, and 10% of the land around it is protected against 4% around New York. Days run warmer through the year.
Where they are alike
Both put a similar number of notable places within walking distance of the centre, so either works as a walking trip.
Beyond the centre they are close too. Neither is ringed by much protected land, and city parks carry most of the greenery, with New York holding somewhat more park space near the centre. The weather tracks closely: warm summers, cold Januarys, three months of sea at 21°C or more each, and no month below 40mm of rain.
Which traveller are you?
Eating and going out: New York, with about three times as many restaurants near the centre and many times as many places to drink, plus roughly three times the nightclubs. Washington DC covers a similar range of kitchens on a smaller scale.
Families: New York again. It has far more tourist attractions near the centre, more park space, 7 theme parks within reach against 1, and the sea 1km from the centre with 17 beaches nearby.
Museums and walking: Washington DC. Its museums sit tightly around the centre and the walkable core matches New York's, though New York has somewhat more museums overall and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two cities carries no information. It rests on a national price level, identical for both, rather than on what a trip actually costs. This dataset carries no daily budget figure for either city, so no cost comparison between them is possible here at all.
No weather station near either city records sunshine hours, so that series is missing rather than low, and the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone. Note too that New York's beach advantage is a summer one: only three months reach 21°C in the water, and the rain does not ease off in them.
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre). New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre).
New York is at its best in June and September, when days reach 27°C and the sea holds 21°C or more. Rain is steady all year, close to 100mm a month, so a dry week is a matter of luck.
Washington DC peaks in May and again in September, with April the drier shoulder at 82mm. July is the one to skip, its hottest at 32°C and among its wettest. Winter suits neither city, though Washington DC's days stay a touch milder.
Getting there
| Flying from | Washington DC | New York |
|---|---|---|
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 1 h 40 m €267-307 1 stop DCA · 5 km | 2 h 5 m €165-236 EWR · 14 km |
| ChicagoORD, MDW, DPA, PWK +1 | 1 h 50 m €199-215 DCA · 5 km | 2 h 5 m €236-237 LGA · 13 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 0 m €226-372 1 stop DCA · 5 km | 5 h 20 m €314-354 1 stop JFK · 21 km |
| RaleighRDU | 1 h 5 m €230 1 stop DCA · 5 km | 1 h 30 m €201-279 1 stop LGA · 13 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 20 m €158-333 IAD · 37 km | 1 h 20 m €206-234 LGA · 13 km |
| OrlandoMCO, SFB, ORL | 2 h 5 m €189-295 1 stop DCA · 5 km | 2 h 30 m €207-260 LGA · 13 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 7 h 35 m €507-561 1 stop IAD · 37 km | 7 h 10 m €459-498 JFK · 21 km |
| San SalvadorSAL, ILS | 4 h 15 m €548-564 IAD · 37 km | 4 h 35 m no fares EWR · 14 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m no fares IAD · 37 km | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 11 h 50 m no fares IAD · 37 km | 11 h 25 m €622-836 1 stop JFK · 21 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-09 to 2026-09, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Washington DC | New York |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 72 m | 25 m |
| Main airport | Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre103 non-stop destinations | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 11 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Washington DC | New York |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 689,545 | 8,804,190 |
| People per km² | 3,896 | 7,256 |
| Museums within 10 km | 99 | 157 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 0 | 2 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 82 | 132 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 3 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Washington DC or New York somewhere new.