VacationSelector
Galena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain, Aspen
AspenGalena Street with the runs of Aspen Mountain
The Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
San FranciscoThe Golden Gate Bridge

Photos: Aspen by Moroder, CC BY-SA 3.0, cropped; San Francisco by Elijah Cobb, Pexels License.

Aspen 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 Aspen for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • wellness
  • getting around

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

Choose San Francisco for

  • culture and sights
  • day trips
  • food and drink

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. Aspen 6, San Francisco 25: San Francisco leads by 19 points.
Food & drink. Aspen 45, San Francisco 82: San Francisco leads by 37 points.
Culture & sights. Aspen 22, San Francisco 68: San Francisco leads by 46 points.
Nightlife. Aspen 40, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 18 points.
Nature & outdoors. Aspen 95, San Francisco 80: Aspen leads by 15 points.
Day trips. Aspen 30, San Francisco 72: San Francisco leads by 42 points.
Good for families. Aspen 55, San Francisco 66: San Francisco leads by 11 points.
Getting around. Aspen 72, San Francisco 70: Aspen leads by 2 points.
Shopping & style. Aspen 50, San Francisco 58: San Francisco leads by 8 points.
Affordability. Aspen 5, San Francisco 14: San Francisco leads by 9 points.
Live music & performing arts. Aspen 50, San Francisco 76: San Francisco leads by 26 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Aspen 50, San Francisco 42: Aspen leads by 8 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Aspen and San Francisco.

Your match

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

Aspen
43match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and wellness with your weighting.

San Francisco
Best match
59match

Wins on culture and sights and day trips with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

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

Aspen in July

27 °Cdaytime high
10 °Cnight-time low
33 mmrain in the month
No seasea
15 hdaylight a day

San Francisco in July

22 °Cdaytime high
14 °Cnight-time low
0 mmrain in the month
13 °Csea
15 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

-10°0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
AspenSan Francisco

Where the figures come from

Aspen 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. Aspen: 2006-2020 (rainfall 1991-2020) normals, Aspen / Woody Creek (5.2 km from centre). San Francisco: 1981-2010 normals, Alameda Naval Air Station (9.1 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureAspenSan Francisco
CurrencyUS Dollar (USD)US Dollar (USD)
SocketsAB120 V, 60 HzAB120 V, 60 Hz
Driving sideRightRight
Time zoneUTC-7, UTC-6 in summerUTC-8, UTC-7 in summer
Emergency number911911
Elevation2,405 m16 m
Main airportAspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)5 km from centre11 non-stop destinationsSan Francisco International Airport (SFO)18 km from centre142 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year12 days13 days

By the numbers

MeasureAspenSan Francisco
City population7,004873,965
People per km²7001,455
Museums within 10 km251
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 Aspen 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. 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.