VacationSelector
The beach with the bay and the skyline behind, Acapulco
AcapulcoThe beach with the bay and the skyline behind
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Acapulco by Felicia Navarrete, Pexels License; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Acapulco or San Francisco?

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 Acapulco for

  • prices
  • beaches
  • nightlife

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • day trips
  • live music and the arts
  • culture and sights

What lies behind each score is written up on San Francisco’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. Acapulco 80, San Francisco 25: Acapulco leads by 55 points.
Food & drink. Acapulco 55, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 27 points.
Culture & sights. Acapulco 28, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Nightlife. Acapulco 64, San Francisco 58: Acapulco leads by 6 points.
Nature & outdoors. Acapulco 50, San Francisco 80: San Francisco leads by 30 points.
Day trips. Acapulco 15, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 57 points.
Good for families. Acapulco 45, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 21 points.
Getting around. Acapulco 30, San Francisco 70: San Francisco leads by 40 points.
Shopping & style. Acapulco 32, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Affordability. Acapulco 74, San Francisco 14: Acapulco leads by 60 points.
Live music & performing arts. Acapulco 26, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 50 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Acapulco 32, San Francisco 42: San Francisco leads by 10 points.
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What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Acapulco and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Acapulco
44match

Wins on prices and beaches with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on day trips and live music and the arts with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Acapulco in July

34 °Cdaytime high
24 °Cnight-time low
226 mmrain in the month
8 hsunshine a day
30 °Csea
13 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
No recordsunshine a day
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°40°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0100200300JFMAMJJASOND
AcapulcoSan Francisco

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Acapulco: 1991-2020 normals, Acapulco, Gro. (5.9 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAcapulcoSan Francisco
Official languageSpanish, Nahuatl, Yucatec Maya-
CurrencyMexican Peso (MXN)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB127 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-6UTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation18 m16 m
Main airportGeneral Juan N. Álvarez International Airport (ACA)18 km from centre10 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year9 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAcapulcoSan Francisco
City population658,609873,965
People per km²3501,455
Museums within 10 km351
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km00
Swim season, months above 21 °C12 monthsNone

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Acapulco or San Francisco 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 2026-11-02. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.