VacationSelector
The US Capitol, Washington DC
Washington DCThe US Capitol
York Minster from the city walls, York
YorkYork Minster from the city walls

Photos: Washington DC by Guohua Song, Pexels License; York by PAUL FARMER, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.

Washington DC or York?

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 Washington DC for

  • live music and the arts
  • food and drink
  • nightlife

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

Choose York for

  • prices
  • wellness
  • day trips

What lies behind each score is written up on York’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. Washington DC 12, York 14: York leads by 2 points.
Food & drink. Washington DC 67, York 42: Washington DC leads by 25 points.
Culture & sights. Washington DC 84, York 70: Washington DC leads by 14 points.
Nightlife. Washington DC 57, York 36: Washington DC leads by 21 points.
Nature & outdoors. Washington DC 64, York 62: Washington DC leads by 2 points.
Day trips. Washington DC 73, York 80: York leads by 7 points.
Good for families. Washington DC 73, York 60: Washington DC leads by 13 points.
Getting around. Washington DC and York are level on 72.
Shopping & style. Washington DC 52, York 46: Washington DC leads by 6 points.
Affordability. Washington DC 28, York 38: York leads by 10 points.
Live music & performing arts. Washington DC 67, York 38: Washington DC leads by 29 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Washington DC 26, York 34: York leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Washington DC and York.

Your match

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

Washington DC
Best match
56match

Wins on live music and the arts and food and drink with your weighting.

York
49match

Wins on prices and wellness with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Washington DC in July

32 °Cdaytime high
22 °Cnight-time low
108 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
25 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

York in July

21 °Cdaytime high
12 °Cnight-time low
62 mmrain in the month
6 hsunshine a day
No seasea
17 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
Washington DCYork

Where the figures come from

York 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.

York's sunshine is measured 48 km from the centre, at Leeming.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Washington DC: 1991-2020 normals, Washington National Airport (5 km from centre). York: 1991-2020 normals, Linton-On-Ouse (14.9 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureWashington DCYork
Official language-English
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)Pound Sterling (GBP)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzG230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC-5, UTC-4 in summerUTC, UTC+1 in summer
Emergency number911112 or 999
Elevation72 m25 m
Main airportRonald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA)5 km from centre105 non-stop destinationsLeeds Bradford Airport (LBA)39 km from centre69 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year11 days8 days

By the numbers

MeasureWashington DCYork
City population689,545208,400
People per km²3,896766
Museums within 10 km9824
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km02
Swim season, months above 21 °C3 months-

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Washington DC or York 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. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. 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. 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 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.